Monday, July 8, 2013

Immigration Reform Bill - Unattainable English Requirement



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!

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