Trump Made English the Official Language in a Country With 350 of Them

New York Times

03-03-2025

President Trump's executive order making English the official language of the United States reached into history to argue its case, noting that the country's founding documents were written in English.
But it turns out, not only in English. After the Constitution was drafted in 1787, supporters of ratification printed translations for Dutch speakers in New York and German speakers in Pennsylvania, so they could understand the arguments for a 'vollkommenere Vereinigung' — a more perfect union.
The push and pull over whether America should have one national language or embrace its polyglot spirit has generated fierce debate for more than a century, raising deeper questions about belonging and assimilation in a country whose people speak more than 350 languages.
Now, Mr. Trump's executive order puts an 'America first' stamp onto the nation's speech.
His order gave a long-sought victory to the English-only movement, which has ties to efforts to curb immigration and bilingual education. Supporters said it recognized the reality of English's primacy in American life. Nearly 80 percent of the population speaks only English, and immigrants have long been required to demonstrate English proficiency before becoming citizens.
Senator Eric Schmitt, Republican of Missouri, called it a 'long, long overdue' official acknowledgment that 'in this country, we speak English.' Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, wrote a social-media post in Spanish saying that English should be the country's 'idioma oficial.'
But immigrant-rights groups and congressional Democrats warned that the order could alienate immigrants and make it harder for non-English speakers to get government services, fill out health care forms or vote. The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus called it a 'thinly veiled attempt to allow federal agencies to discriminate against immigrants.'
Some critics compared Mr. Trump's order to Indian boarding schools that forbade Native languages, World War I laws that banned the German language and state-level efforts to outlaw bilingual education.
Legal experts said the order's effects might be muted at first.
It rescinds a mandate signed by then President Bill Clinton in 2000 that required government agencies and anyone who received federal money to provide translated documents and other language services to people who speak limited English.
But unlike some restrictive English-only state laws that have been struck down by courts, Mr. Trump's order does not require agencies to operate solely in English. They can continue to offer documents and services in other languages.
'It's not nearly as punitive as it could be,' said Mary Carol Combs, an education professor at the University of Arizona.
Early American history is full of examples of bilingual government, experts said. In the 19th century, Midwestern states translated laws and messages from their governors into Norwegian, German and Welsh. California's 1849 Constitution required laws and decrees to be published in both English and Spanish.
'There have always been diverse linguistic populations,' said Christina Mulligan, a professor at Brooklyn Law School who wrote about the translated Constitutions.
An influx of immigrants from Asia and Latin America in the second half of the 20th century helped galvanize the modern English-only movement. More than 30 states have designated English as their official language, including heavily Democratic California.
Mr. Trump seized on the issue as one of American identity when he first ran for president. He told Jeb Bush, the bilingual former governor of Florida, 'This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish.' During his campaign last year, Mr. Trump said American classrooms were being overwhelmed by students 'from countries where they don't even know what the language is.'
His executive order said that designating English as the official language would streamline communication, 'reinforce shared national values, and create a more cohesive and efficient society.'
The order got a mixed reaction from some voters in Arizona, a state with a large Mexican American electorate that went for Mr. Trump in 2016, flipped to Democrats four years later, and swung back to Mr. Trump in 2024. The state is also a battlefield over language in classrooms, where the Republican state school superintendent unsuccessfully sued several schools over their dual-language programs.
David Ramos, 36, who works in the aerospace industry in the Phoenix area, said he had thought that English was already the country's official language. He grew up hearing his Puerto Rican father speak Spanish, and said he regretted never having learned it.
Mr. Ramos, who voted for Mr. Trump, said the designation would have little effect on his life, but he took it as a sign that Mr. Trump was bulldozing ahead to fulfill campaign promises.
'I would rather have a leader who's assertive and spoke up for us, even if I didn't agree with it 100 percent of the time, versus somebody who's a doormat,' he said.
But Jorge Marquez, 39, was torn. He spent years working in construction, saving up to open English 4 U, a storefront school in Phoenix where he teaches immigrants about irregular English verbs and how to order a McDonald's cheeseburger. Like Mr. Trump, he wants more people to speak English.
As a Friday evening class wrapped up, though, he and his students were worried. They saw learning English as a bridge to better jobs and being able to communicate with doctors, bosses and their children's teachers. But they worried that Mr. Trump's edict would stigmatize people who spoke other languages, had accents or were still struggling to learn English.
'He's not wrong,' Mr. Marquez said of Mr. Trump. 'English is beautiful, but teach it in a good way. Have a little empathy.'