PRESS RELEASE: ProEnglish Praises Trump’s Official English Executive Order

WASHINGTON, D.C.– “It is a long overdue, welcomed move that today President Donald Trump repealed the Clinton-era Executive Order 13166 and replaced it with a new executive order stipulating English as the official language of government,” said Acting ProEnglish Executive Director Stephanie White. ProEnglish for decades has been the nation’s leading organization for establishing English as the official language of all federal government operations. 

E.O. 13166, issued by President Bill Clinton, discouraged assimilation of legal immigrants by mandating that that the federal government and its agencies provide expensive translation services in any foreign language. These additional translation costs have run into billions of dollars since 2001. But this ends today,” White said.

“The United States has never had an official, national language since its founding,” White said. “Under the Trump order, federal agencies can still provide services and documentation in other languages, but English should be stressed since current laws say U.S. citizens must be proficient in English.”   

 A large majority of Americans of all backgrounds and political persuasions support English as our official language of government.  For example, Rasmussen Reports polling in recent years showed that over 80 percent of Americans believe that English should be the nation’s official language of the United States. 

“In light of this overwhelming national sentiment,” White continued, “the president properly responded to the disconnect that undermined America’s traditional process of immigrant assimilation.  Every American should be proud of their national origin, race, native language and customs. But without public policies that reinforce the English tie that unite us, multilingual diversity could well become the undoing of our country.”