Trump Declares English the Official Language of the U.S. in Attempt to Define What It Means to be American

On March 1, President Trump signed an executive order (EO) designating English as the official language of the United States. The U.S. joins approximately 180 other countries that have an “official national language,” and is now the 12th country* to name English among its official languages. The executive order revokes a Clinton-era Executive Order (13166) which aimed to improve access to federally led and federally assisted programs and activities for people not yet proficient in English, and rescinds all related policy guidance documents.

The EO claims that the U.S. will be stronger and more unified by having a nationally designated language that its citizenry can use to freely exchange ideas. However, by many accounts, English is already the common language among people who reside in the U.S.

Roughly 241 million people speak only English at home in the U.S., which is about 78 percent of the population. People who speak a language other than English represent the minority at just under 68 million (28 percent). Additionally, English is already the language of instruction across K–12 public schools and post-secondary education. English dominates American pop culture that is expressed through music, movies, and television, and news. And 31 states and five territories already have laws on the books designating English as their official language. These facts illustrate that English has become the de-facto primary language in the country. So why is this EO necessary?

According to the EO, “a policy of encouraging the learning and adoption of our national language will make the United States a shared home and empower new citizens to achieve the American dream” and will help welcome new Americans. On its own, this statement sounds good-intentioned. However, when contextualized against the backdrop of U.S. history, it is hard to ignore the deficit-based assimilation efforts lingering under the surface.

Prior to European colonization, approximately 300 indigenous languages were spoken on the land now known as the U.S. Almost half of these languages have fallen victim to linguicide, which is the deliberate destruction of a language or the forced loss of a language by a group of people. Today, approximately 167 indigenous languages remain–only 20 of which are expected to survive by 2050–and the majority of Native Americans speak only English. As is commonly stated, “when a language dies, its culture suffers a tragic loss.”

Language loss has long been associated with oppression, and the U.S. has a history of using the public education system to suppress speakers of other languages. Starting in the late 19th Century, Native American families were forced to send their children to Indian Boarding schools where they were prohibited from speaking their native language and were harshly punished if they did. These “schools” were used to root out Native Americans’ way of life and replace it with the “mainstream American culture.”

Immigrant-origin students and families have also faced their own version of discrimination and segregation and have had to fight to enshrine English Learners’ (ELs) right to equitable educational opportunities. For example, Lau v. Nichols, a seminal case for EL student rights, was born out of a class action suit on behalf of 1,800 Cantonese-speaking students from Chinese backgrounds enrolled in San Francisco Unified School District who were not being provided supplemental language instruction. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that ELs must be provided with the necessary services to “fully participate” in their education, regardless of their home language. And although bilingual education has deep American roots, it continues to be politicized despite the solid body of research demonstrating the net benefit of these programs on a variety of student outcomes for ELs.

Indeed, the majority of the 5.3 million students identified as ELs are educated using English-centered models. In 2019, for example, only 7.9 percent of ELs were in dual language programs and 16.5 percent were in bilingual programs. The rest (roughly 4.7 million) were in some type of English as a Second Language program. At the same time, educators report that language shaming is alive and well in American public schools.

Practically speaking, it’s hard to know how much impact this EO will have given the limitations of executive orders over legal statute. Language access rights are enshrined in other federal statutes, most prominently in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and federal agencies will still be allowed to continue providing resources and services in languages other than English if they so wish. This directive is also unlikely to affect the language support services offered to EL-identified students given the existing legal framework that ensures EL students are provided with equitable access to education.

Symbolically and more perniciously, however, the EO reinforces the deficit-based message that one must give up their home language in order to be truly “American.” This message has led many first, second, and third generation Americans to become disconnected from their place, people, and language of origin. Efforts to detach people from their histories and ancestors for an elusive idea of what it means to be “American” should not be taken lightly because as the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative stated, “cultural heritage represents the spirit and purpose of humanity.”

*According to this source English is the official language in England. However, other sources state that there is no official language in England or in the United Kingdom as a whole. Therefore England was not included in the total count of countries with English as the official language.