One of the provisions of the 2013 Immigration Reform Bill
is that the applicants must learn English. Good luck with that expectation since this requirement is practically impossible! Marco Rubio has been highlighting
this expectation in his interviews. However, as a long time South Florida resident , he should know better that some immigrants
who have become naturalized citizens of the United States have never learned to
communicate in English. In fact, at a courthouse located in one major city, announcements are made to the jury pool not only in
English but also in the two other languages that are dominant throughout the city. The announcement requests that those jury members who do not speak
English should go to the front desk. Since these members do not return to the jury pool, it is presumed that they are dismissed. Of course, with this presumption, some jury members
who simply want to get out of serving on a jury, go to the front desk. However, there is
no doubt that the majority of the non-English speakers who go to the front desk really
cannot communicate in English in terms
of speaking, reading, writing, or comprehending when English is spoken to them.
And, ironically, some of these
“citizens” may even have been living in the United States for more than 30
years. While immigrant children who are natives of non-English speaking
countries learn English without much effort when they are enrolled in schools
in the United States, this is not an easy task for adults especially if they have had learning difficulties as far back as when they attended school in their own countries. So, if not even
naturalized citizens are required to learn English, how will it be possible to stipulate in the proposed Immigration Reform Bill that immigrants
who apply for immunity must learn English. This is simply not practical!
No comments:
Post a Comment