U.S. English, Inc. Chairman Responds to Gov. Ehrlich’s Comments

On his weekly radio program on WBAL, Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich, Jr. emphasized the importance of English for immigrants to the United States. The governor upheld the need to encourage newcomers to assimilate, learn American culture and language, rather than to promote multiculturalism and break along ethnic lines. Minority groups were quick to object to Ehrlich’s remarks, some going as far as to suggest that the governor needs “diversity training.”

Mauro E. Mujica, Chairman/CEO of U.S.ENGLISH, Inc. issued the following statement:

Leadership often requires a public servant to challenge entrenched interests and risk receiving demagogic criticism in order to take a stand on important issues. By that standard, Governor Ehrlich’s recent remarks about language and culture make him a leader who deserves the highest praise.

The hysterical reactions from certain leaders shows that some would like to divide America along ethnic and linguistic lines.

Governor Ehrlich’s remarks should not be controversial. The belief that immigrants to the United States should assimilate into American culture, and learn our common language, is decidedly mainstream. For an elected leader like Ana Sol Gutierrez to suggest that this mainstream belief qualifies one for “diversity training” shows just how extreme “multiculturalism” has become.

Individuals criticizing Ehrlich’s comments are in the distinct minority. More than eight-in-ten Americans support making English the official language of government and 96 percent believe that it is essential or important for immigrants living in the United States to speak English. Further evidence of the overwhelming support of English initiatives can be found in public reaction to Comptroller Donald Schaefer, who began a meeting last week by commenting on the need for workers to learn English. Despite the controversy generated by newspapers and “multiculturalists,” favorable responses to Schaefer’s office outnumbered unfavorable comments by a ratio of 21 to 1.

Governor Ehrlich is a public official who no doubt recognizes that immigrants change America. But if that change is for the better, it will be only if immigrants of today accept the responsibilities that those who came before them accepted. Namely, those who come to America should be on a path to becoming Americans, not merely foreigners who have migrated north. And in the United States, our civic culture rests on a populace that can talk to one another when we have debates of this sort. In a nation of 329 languages, one common language is necessary. And in the United States, that language is English.

I commend Governor Ehrlich for his tough-minded insistence that the America that immigrants come to today has the same high expectations of its immigrants as the one I immigrated to nearly 40 years ago. I urge the governor to explore policy options to ensure that every immigrant understands their responsibility to their new country, and has the opportunity to learn English.

U.S. English, Inc. is the nation's oldest and largest non-partisan citizens' action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States. Founded in 1983 by the late Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California, U.S. English, Inc. (www.usenglish.org) now has more than 1.8 million members.