President Trump signed an executive order in March designating English to be the official language of the United States.
In it, he declared that it is long past time to do so to create a cohesive society and push immigrants into adopting American culture and joining the American tradition.
Now, the Department of Justice is following through on the order and making sweeping changes to the federal government — and its services — to make the aggravating experience of dealing with government agencies a lot simpler.
‘You shouldn’t have to press 1 for English when calling a federal agency.’
As part of new guidance, the DOJ said it was in Americans’ best interest for the federal government to have one official language: English.
It said the new policy would streamline federal processes, including forms, notices, websites, and advisories, to make them consistently clear and cost-effective. The guidance also said federal agencies will need to determine which of their programs, grants, and policies might better serve the public if they operated exclusively in English.
This effectively means that wherever possible, federal agencies will be providing services only in English.
The Justice Department is also looking to eliminate initiatives from a Clinton-era executive order which introduced limited English proficiency programs.
The Trump administration said that LEPs often prioritized “multilingualism over English proficiency among new Americans” and “could impede assimilation and strain resources.”
Therefore, the government is suspending operations of the LEP.gov website and will stop any letters, videos, or other training materials from being produced. These are likely to be replaced with new ones that reflect Trump’s executive order.
Not only that, but all LEP guidance will be rescinded regarding the idea of “national origin discrimination affecting limited English proficient persons,” which was referenced in Clinton’s executive order.
“As President Trump has made clear, English is the official language of the United States,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a press release.
She added, “The Department of Justice will lead the effort to codify the president’s executive order and eliminate wasteful virtue-signaling policies across government agencies to promote assimilation over division.”
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in the press release that the DOJ plans to “respect linguistic diversity” but that federal resources will “prioritize English proficiency to empower new Americans and strengthen civic unity.”
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Representative Mary Miller (R-Ill.) boiled the new guidance down to a simple issue: “You shouldn’t have to press 1 for English when calling a federal agency.”
Miller wrote on X, “This is America, English should be the default. Learn it!”
The DOJ left room for the idea that some federal agencies could deem it “mission critical” to have some second-language services. If that were the case, they would need to include a “clear note that English is the official language and authoritative version of all federal information.”
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