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<h1>Texas Town Drops English as Official Language</h1>
<div id="gmail-bbvb" title="http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/12/01/texas-town-drops-english-official-language/"><div class="gmail-addthis_toolbox gmail-addthis_default_style"><div class="gmail-adhold5 gmail-adh1"><a class="gmail-addthis_button_facebook gmail-x5l gmail-at300b" target="_blank" title="Share this page on Facebook" href="http://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/facebook/offer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Ftexas%2F2017%2F12%2F01%2Ftexas-town-drops-english-official-language%2F&pubid=ra-536db77a775cf072&text=Texas+Town+Drops+English+as+Official+Language" rel="noopener external"><span class="gmail-acz5">11135</span></a></div></div></div> <figure class="gmail-figurearticlefeatured"><div class="gmail-featured-container"><img src="http://media.breitbart.com/media/2015/11/Training-School-Prepares-Filipinos-To-Work-As-A-Domestic-Helper-Getty-640x480.png" class="gmail-attachment-isc-bbn-full gmail-size-isc-bbn-full gmail-wp-post-image" alt="English language test" width="640" height="480"><div class="gmail-attribution">Veejay Villafranca/Getty Images</div></div></figure>
<p class="gmail-byline"><span class="gmail-by-author"><span class="gmail-by">by</span> <a class="gmail-byauthor" href="http://www.breitbart.com/author/mhope/">Merrill Hope</a></span><span class="gmail-bydate">1 Dec 2017</span><span class="gmail-bycity"><span style="font-size:inherit"><a id="gmail-PXLINK_3_0_2" class="gmail-pxInta" href="http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/12/01/texas-town-drops-english-official-language/#">Farmers</a></span> Branch, TX</span><a rel="nofollow" class="gmail-bycount" href="http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/12/01/texas-town-drops-english-official-language/#disqus_thread">1,799</a></p>
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<h2>A North Texas city dropped English as its official language, a
move dubbed by its mayor as heralding in a “new day” that was
“welcoming” and “inclusive.”</h2>
<p>On Tuesday evening, the city council of Farmers Branch voted
unanimously to repeal a 2006 ordinance that declared English as the
municipality’s official language. That policy stated all city business
must be conducted in English, the “common language” of Texas and the
United States and said “the use of a common language removes barriers of
misunderstanding” and enables “civic participation of all citizens,
regardless of national origin, creed, race.”</p>
<p>The <em>Dallas Business Journal</em> recently <a href="https://www.farmersbranchtx.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=879" target="_blank" rel="noopener external" class="gmail-x5l">ranked</a> Farmers Branch, located within Dallas County, as the ninth-fastest growing suburb in North Texas with an <a href="https://www.farmersbranchtx.gov/555/Demographics" target="_blank" rel="noopener external" class="gmail-x5l">estimated</a> 2017
population of 31,719. Updated demographic data based on U.S. Census
Bureau figures provided to Breitbart Texas by Esri, a geographic
information systems company, shows Farmers Branch as 52.1 percent
non-Hispanic and 47.9 percent Hispanic.</p>
<p>Prior to the vote, the city council met for a <a href="http://farmersbranch.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=327" target="_blank" rel="noopener external" class="gmail-x5l">study session</a>.
Mayor Robert Dye called the English-only ordinance repeal “the right
thing to do” and a “symbolic gesture,” alluding to a seven year costly
legal battle the city waged over a 2007 ordinance that sought to
prohibit local landlords from renting property to people illegally in
the United States. The renting ordinance was never enacted. The Mexican
American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the city. <a href="http://www.irli.org/single-post/2016/01/01/Vasquez-v-City-of-Farmers-Branch" target="_blank" rel="noopener external" class="gmail-x5l">According to</a>
the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), the case was eventually
consolidated with other similar legal actions. Several lower courts
ruled against the rental ordinance, citing immigration policy remained a
federal issue. The city appealed. In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court
declined <span style="font-size:inherit"><a id="gmail-PXLINK_4_0_3" class="gmail-pxInta" href="http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/12/01/texas-town-drops-english-official-language/#">hearing</a></span> out Farmers Branch, allowing a lower court ruling to stand that nixed the ordinance.</p>
<p>Dye called himself a “proponent of English,” referring to it as the
international language of business, then segued to unnamed “studies”
that show the cognitive benefits of multi-lingualism as offsetting
Alzheimer’s <span style="font-size:inherit"><a id="gmail-PXLINK_2_0_1" class="gmail-pxInta" href="http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/12/01/texas-town-drops-english-official-language/#">Disease</a></span> and <span style="font-size:inherit"><a id="gmail-PXLINK_1_0_0" class="gmail-pxInta" href="http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/12/01/texas-town-drops-english-official-language/#">dementia</a></span>.</p>
<p>Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Mike Bomgardner likened the English-only
ordinance to the last “black eye” that activists hold onto and “hammer”
against Farmers Branch. He suggested repealing it would disarm them,
adding, “We have the potential to get some great press out of it if we
make this move.”</p>
<p>Councilman Terry Lynne said he did not believe the 2006 council
members created the ordinance “with any malice.” He said he believed
non-English speakers have “no incentive to assimilate to our culture”
without learning English.</p><div class="gmail-ad gmail-adinbody gmail-Hmobi gmail-padok" style="min-width:336px;min-height:280px"><div class="gmail-inbodyad" id="gmail-desktop-ROS-Body1"><p>advertisement</p></div></div>
<p>Later at the sparsely attended <a href="http://farmersbranch.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=327" target="_blank" rel="noopener external" class="gmail-x5l">city council meeting</a>,
Lynne said he thought it “important that people who live, not just in
Farmers Branch, but Texas and elsewhere assimilate to what the local
culture is.”</p>
<p>“Where does it stop?” he asked, noting that San Francisco prints up
its election ballots in 27 languages. Lynne said he never heard of
anyone who would not live in Farmers Branch because of the English-only
ordinance.</p>
<p>Dye said other Texas cities did not have an English-only ordinance
and seemed to be successfully functioning. He said the repeal will show
Farmers Branch as a “welcoming” and “inclusive” city. “We want to show
not only to our community but to other communities outside Farmers
Branch that it’s a new day.”</p>
<p>A handful of individuals spoke during the public comments. They
supported the repeal. One suggested that Farmers Branch voters get to
determine the fate of the English-only ordinance in local 2018
elections. Another, Candace Valenzuela, a Dallas resident and
Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district board member described the
ordinance as “anti-human” and “regressive.” She called English-only bad
for children, schools, and taxpayers, alleging it “creates a culture of
bigotry,” makes Spanish speakers feel unwelcome, and their children
“inferior and un-American” while turning away “people who would enhance”
the tax base and contribute to the city and its public schools.</p>
<p>Councilwoman Ana Reyes stated there was no law that declared English
as the national language. She described the ordinance as “misguided.”
She also called it out-of-step with the school district’s dual-language
program.</p>
<p>Mayor Pro-Tem John Norwood foresaw no economic hit to the city in
repealing the policy. He cited the Farmers Branch annual budget at $103
million, noting any anticipated costs for printed materials requiring
translation would run about $1,000.</p>
<p>Dye noted that regardless of the English-only ordinance the state
already required them to translate public health and safety information
but the repeal would allow the city to offer translated marketing
materials for library and park and rec programs.</p>
<p>The most impassioned remarks made came from Councilman Bronson
Blackson who monologued on the “contributions of immigrants to the
nation.” He reverently rattled off a short list of prominent American
immigrants — Albert Einstein and Levi Strauss, who each emigrated from
Germany; Joseph Pulitzer, Hungary; Felix Frankfurter, Austria; Madeleine
Albright, Czechoslovakia; and Irving Berlin, from Russia.</p>
<p>“You know what he did for us?” posited Blackson about prolific
songwriter Berlin born Israel Beilin. “He wrote ‘God Bless America.'”</p>
<p>Blackson, however, omitted, or perhaps, did not know, the
circumstances behind these esteemed immigrants of Jewish heritage coming
to America. Many fled Europe at different historical points because of
horrific persecution ranging from the murderous anti-Semitic Russian
pogroms to the heinous systematic Holocaust perpetrated by Adolf Hitler
and the Nazi party that targeted and wiped out 6 million Jews.</p>
<p>He also stated, “When you ask an immigrant to assimilate to American
culture and values I think it’s important to remember that American
culture as we know it is originates from the very people that we’re
asking to change – immigrants.”</p>
<p>Blackson continued, “Our first amendment guarantees us that America
can be any race or religion, but nowhere does it require anyone to
forego their cultural ties and their cultural ties are their language.”</p>
<p>He closed by quoting former U.S. President, the late Ronald Reagan.
“Status quo, you know, is Latin for the mess we’re in.” Said Blackson,
“It’s time to get out of the mess.”</p>
<p>The city council then voted to nullify the English-only ordinance with a “repealing resolution.”</p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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