Immigration Law

Lewisville Debates English As City's Official Language

By Robert Kraft

Why do cities continue to waste time and money trying to make English the "official" language? The latest in our area to do so is the Dallas northern suburb of Lewisville, which is debating the issue this evening in a city council meeting. The council will also be debating which city documents to translate into English.

Many official documents are required by state or federal law to be translated into English, but cities are more and more trying to restrict the other types of documents they translate. I understand it's a pain and an expense to do these translations, but in Texas we have such a large Spanish-speaking population that it just makes sense to me that a city would want a high percentage of their citizens to understand the city's rules and ordinances. Spanish is the primary language in about 20 percent of Lewisville's 30,000 households.

Of course there is often a hidden agenda in these "English only" debates, and that is to drive away immigrants from the cities.

Full post as published by Immigration Law Answers Blog on October 06, 2008 (boomark / email).