On Mar. 1, President Donald Trump signed an executive order making English the official language of the United States, putting close to 68 million non-speaking English people at a disadvantage, CNBC reports.
The order makes it the first time in U.S. history for an official national language. It pushes “new Americans to adopt a national language that opens doors to greater opportunities.” While the U.S. Census Bureau says close to 1 in 5 Americans spoke a second language outside of English at home in 2019, a White House fact sheet claims a national language “strengthens the fabric of our society” by promoting unity and civic engagement in addition to establishing “efficiency in government operations.”
The latest executive order also rescinds a directive from former President Bill Clinton in August 2000, requiring agencies and recipients of federal funds to provide language services for those who don’t speak English fluently.
Lawmakers in the past have unsuccessfully introduced legislation to designate English as the official language of the U.S.; however, under Trump’s new order, more than half of the states have passed laws labeling English as the official language, according to the Associated Press.
Advocacy groups, such as U.S. English, have been pushing for this move and have finally achieved what they have been working toward, but other demographics are confused about where it leaves them amid a new Trump era.
Hispanic advocacy groups said they were confused when, just hours after Trump was sworn in during his inauguration, the administration removed the Spanish-language version of the official White House website. Officials claim the site will soon be restored, but as of early March 2025, nothing has yet to reappear. Trump did the same thing during his first term in the Oval Office.
During Trump’s first term in office, he also removed the Spanish language version of the White House website. It was restored in 2021 under President Joe Biden.
Trump spent a lot of time during his campaign trail speaking with Latinos to hear their concerns in hopes of garnering their votes. CEO of LULAC, the largest and oldest civil rights organization for Latinx Americans, Juan Proaño, said Latino men, in particular, voted for the indicted businessman because of his focus “primarily on economic issues, inflation, wages and even support of immigration reform.”
After pushing for the “largest deportation efforts ever,” the 47th President also spent time pushing false narratives regarding the number of languages that are spoken in the United States, labeling language barriers as one reason behind heightened immigration. ”We have languages coming into our country … that nobody in this country has ever heard of,” he said during a Conservative Political Action Conference speech.
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