Okla. lawmaker plans official English legislation
Okla. lawmaker plans official English legislation
Comments 
99
Published: March 18, 2008
The author of Oklahoma's sweeping anti-illegal-immigration law said Tuesday he plans new legislation that would ask voters to make English the official language of the state.
Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, said the measure will seek a constitutional amendment requiring that all official state government business be conducted in English similar to proposals adopted by 30 other states that have made English the official language.
The legislation addresses government speech and recognizes the state's right to control the way it communicates with citizens and how citizens communicate with it, Terrill said.
If approved by voters, the measure would prevent the state from having to deliver taxpayer services in a language other than English and avoid the cost of providing services in multiple languages by using translators and publishing state documents in various languages.
"Translation costs money," Terrill said. "We know the costs are significant."
The measure also adopts a federal government policy that encourages immigrants to assimilate into American society by speaking English.
The bill carves out exceptions for American Indian languages and would not interfere with tribal language programs. English-only legislation died in the House last year after it was opposed by tribal officials.
"This bill simply does not touch Native American languages at all," Terrill said. "This bill, I think, is legally air tight."
The "official English" requirements are in an amendment Terrill plans to insert into a Senate bill that is pending in the House General Government and Transportation Committee. Terrill said he hopes to fast-track the bill and have it approved by the House and Senate and awaiting
Gov. Brad Henry's signature by the end of March.
Terrill authored last year's House Bill 1804, anti-immigration legislation that had wide bipartisan support. It went into effect for the public sector on Nov. 1 and will go into effect July 1 for private sector employers.
Among other things, the measure bars illegal immigrants from receiving tax-supported services, requires employers to verify the immigration status of their employees and exposes employers to legal action for hiring unauthorized immigrants in place of
U.S. citizens.
The "official English" proposal is part of legislation Terrill filed to strengthen last year's bill that also would have allowed law enforcement agencies to seize and forfeit assets used to harbor, transport or conceal illegal aliens.
Terrill said he did not pursue the bill because it had far less political support than last year's measure. Public opinion polls indicate voters support expanding state anti-illegal immigrant guidelines but businesses say the guidelines have driven Hispanic workers — legal and illegal — out of the state, making it harder to find workers.
The idea of making English the state's official language is not new. In 2002, the state Supreme Court ruled that an initiative petition to make English the official state language was unconstitutional and infringed on the right of free speech, the freedom to petition the government for redress and upon the policy-making function of the Legislature.
In 2006, the city of Altus reached a settlement with a group of Hispanic municipal workers who challenged the city's English-only policy. The workers had filed complaints with the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that said the city did not show there was a need to prevent them from speaking Spanish and that the policy singled out a nationality.
Leave a Comment
News Photo Galleriesview all
Prev
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
Log in below or sign up (it's free).
I'm not really sure what the logic of this bill is here anyway. It will mean that Oklahoma doesn't give taxpayer services in a language that taxpayers understand? Don't we want people filing tax returns?
The bottom line is that there are citizens of our state who need the services that this bill is trying to eliminate. It is unreasonable to suddenly expect them to speak English with no support in learning it and no time to learn it. This is a significantly different bill than 1804, and people who support 1804 (unlike me) need to realize that. This harms legal citizens and legal residents- people who by anyone's standards we should try and help.
I'm perturbed by the folks who use the argument that since the majority of the state's voters agree with this we should do it. 2500 years ago Aristotle noted that democracy was bad when the majority of the people supressed the minority. Is that the kind of state we want to be?
United we stand and devided we fall. I think that God punish the people,d while trying to build a tower to heaven, by making them speak in different languages. Mind you, I said "punished". I personally don't prefer being in public with people who refuse to conform to the traditions of their surrounding and If I don't understand what they are saying, how am I to know that they are not telling someone to pull out their guns and shoot these people and/or worst yet, to pull the string on the bomb they have strapped to their bodies. In a world where terrorism is rampant and viable, we as Americans, should, under the Patriot
act and/or any other national security act, demand that English should and will be spoken in any public domain. I pesonally could care less what someone speaks in the comfort of their own homes.
Paris, Oklahoma City - Mar 18, 2008 4:35 PM"
who says the person at mcdonalds was illegal? maybe they were "high" and uneducated, ive seen that type before working at mcdonalds(a place i can afford to now avoid by the grace of god) who do you think you are to just lump all people with speech impedements, are slow, or just stupid are illegal. and nobody cares if you go to mexico. and it is not rude to not speak english. in the oklahoma i grew up in diversity has always been admired. and if not speaking english is rude to you, i hate to think of what your family and friends think of you.
Tracy, Bethany ,....wow i guess you were there. exactly what is it that i am uninformed on?
yeah Randy way to go!!! how many translators you put out of work? 20? how many more jobs are you going to cost the state. well lets see you were against the lottery and gaming...how many jobs did that create?? hundreds! wow randy you hate peoples right so much you had a elementry schools christmas tree decorated in lottery tickets removed? well thank god for that! then randy comes to my front poarch not once, not twice, but three times and boldly lies, and could not even give me the dictionary definition of republican or what it means to reduce goverment. not only that randy goes on to ask if he can use my property to put up his campaign signs. i reply"hell no", but he does it anyways. then randy goes for the big time. the little man from alva. he decides he can run for a bigger office by making more immigration laws to rile up the "dumb-okies" to what amounts shooting fish in a barrel. everyone knows that illegal immigration is not good for the state, the country, and our tax dollars. any okie that thinks 1804 changed anything but terrill's popularity is just wrong. oklahoma or any other state will have illigal immigrant problems, UNTIL the federal government steps in and enforces our "american" borders. so really...and be honest...what does this bill do? have vast amounts of illegals left the state? have the translators really lost their jobs? has crime noticably decreased? has a republican created more government? did randy really just pick the "hot topic" easy path to popularity? i mean, come on, im randy!!! pedophiles should be jailed if not shot. thats an easy issue aswell. illegal immigrants brown, yellow, black, and white do such a small amount to damage to the job market, and economy pie that its hardly noticable. way to go randy you have divided the people of the state. wasted four years of tax dollars, campaign money, lied, impossed your will in this district to long. why not end your career with something truely spectacular. why not try to get health care for the kids of this state. why not do something to improve the lives and saftey in your district...community... your in the position of power. stop making it a popularity contest and do some real good in peoples lives. engish will always be the "official" language of the USA. every american knows that. is that really all you can come up with? not economy, health, taxes, social services, crime, water, tourism, to name a few? if i was your employeer, and i do vote, and i am in your district, you would have been replaced long ago. you have done nothing but harm to your district. oh and you know what i was saying about "dumb-okies" that cant see past there rasict nose....pt barnum once said "a fools born every minute" terrill's becoming a millionaire.peace out.
At least making ENGLISH the OFFICIAL LANGUAGE would show alittle something, if only taking down some signs and saving more MONEY to send to that SOMEWHERE we don't know about yet...
Aren't we capable of dealing rationally with an opponent without throwing in the "racist" slur.Have you and Seminole Sure been reading the same leftist propaganda?If most Oklahomans support 1804 what does this mean-they are "racists".I don't believe you have ever spoken with Terrill.