The high cost of Trump's English-only order
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President Trump issued an executive order earlier this month
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Trump's executive order
But for
More important, immigrants don't need an executive order to
want
to learn English. In fact, it's a myth that they refuse to learn English, Leeman said.
'This idea of making English the official language in order to encourage people to become proficient in English is a red herring,' Leeman told me. According to a Pew Research Center analysis of US Census data,
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'There is no need for this executive order, except to cause hardship and division,' Leeman said.
In other words, the order will have material consequences. While
Even if it's not immediately clear what, if any, services will be eliminated, experts are worried that there will be people who, for example, go to an emergency room who may see their request for an interpreter denied because that particular hospital stopped funding those services.
That's a problem, because
Making it harder to find interpreters, or reducing access to translated documents, isn't going to make more people learn English — because the incentives to learn English are already overwhelming. It's just going to make life a little more difficult for immigrants and anyone else whose first language isn't English.
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Language is more than just words — it's about connection, understanding, and, at times, survival. In a moment of great vulnerability, despite my fluency in English, the comfort and clarity of Spanish, my first language, would have saved me time and pain.
Trump's executive order ignores this fundamental truth: Language is a bridge to better health care, civic participation, and a more inclusive society.
Marcela García is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
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