[lg policy] Texas Town drops English as official language

[Harold Schiffman]

 Texas Town Drops English as Official Language
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[image: English language test]
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by Merrill Hope <http://www.breitbart.com/author/mhope/>1 Dec 2017Farmers
<http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/12/01/texas-town-drops-english-official-language/#>
Branch, TX1,799
<http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/12/01/texas-town-drops-english-official-language/#disqus_thread>
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.”

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.”

The *Dallas Business Journal* recently ranked
<https://www.farmersbranchtx.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=879> Farmers Branch,
located within Dallas County, as the ninth-fastest growing suburb in North
Texas with an estimated <https://www.farmersbranchtx.gov/555/Demographics> 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.

Prior to the vote, the city council met for a study session
<http://farmersbranch.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=327>.
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. According to
<http://www.irli.org/single-post/2016/01/01/Vasquez-v-City-of-Farmers-Branch>
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 hearing
<http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/12/01/texas-town-drops-english-official-language/#>
out Farmers Branch, allowing a lower court ruling to stand that nixed the
ordinance.

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
Disease
<http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/12/01/texas-town-drops-english-official-language/#>
and dementia
<http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/12/01/texas-town-drops-english-official-language/#>
.

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.”

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.

advertisement

Later at the sparsely attended city council meeting
<http://farmersbranch.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=327>,
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.”

“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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“You know what he did for us?” posited Blackson about prolific songwriter
Berlin born Israel Beilin. “He wrote ‘God Bless America.'”

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.

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.”

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.”

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.”

The city council then voted to nullify the English-only ordinance with a
“repealing resolution.”


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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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