Language Bill Irks Hispanics

Reps. King and Levy back English-only

In supporting two bills that would make English the country’s official language, Long Island Reps. Peter King and David Levy are likely to alienate the Island’s growing Hispanic population and inflame anti-immigrant sentiments, local Hispanic leaders say.

“English is the language of the United States. You know what language they are attacking and you know the group they are attacking. You know it’s the Hispanics who they are really going after,” said Margarita Grasing, a Republican and executive director of the Hispanic Brotherhood of Rockville Centre.

“I’m disappointed, very disappointed because there is no reason why the United States has to have an official langauge – the language here is English,” said Grasing, who served on the Nassau County charter revision commission.

The bills are in the Education and Labor Committee, but no hearings have been held or are scheduled. Both would make English the official language and mandate that government business be conducted in English. One, introduced by U.S. Rep. Toby Roth (R-Wis.), would require the Immigration and Naturalization Service establish standards and tests for English proficiency for prospective citizens, and would eliminate bilingual education and bilingual ballots. The other, introduced by Rep. Bill Emerson (R-Missouri), does not address bilingual issues.

In an interview yesterday, King (R-Seaford), who is a co-sponsor of the bills, said that neither is likely to get very far in the Democratic-controlled Congress, but he denied that Hispanics were the targets of the bills or that they were an attack on immigrants.

“You don’t find me on many anti-immigration [bills],” King said. “I think we hurt people in this country when we ghettoize them by not encouraging them to learn English. Bilingual education has gone on for much too long . . . I have no problem if there was a brief period of six months or a year when a person needed a transition. [But] you find it going on extensively and people are not being brought into the mainstream.”

Levy (R-Baldwin) was unavailable for comment yetserday because of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. But Dan Zielinski, an aide, said Levy supports the bills because “he feels that anyone who comes to our country should in every way possible learn the langauge of the nation . . . It’s not in the immigrant’s best interest not to learn the langauge.”

Hispanic leaders suggested that King and Levy are probably well-intentioned but misguided and hope to meet with the congressmen to discuss the issue.

“He may be right in indicating that minority people who don’t speak English need to learn it to get out of the ghetto,” said Welquis Ray Lopez, a Republican and deputy planning commissioner for the Town of Hempstead. “But I think he should come out and sit down with us and explain his standing.”

John Hernandez, chairman of the political action committee of the Long Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, suggested that the country move toward fluency in more than one langauage.

“What we need to do as a Latino community is address this issue. We need to come out and say there is nothing wrong with bilingual education,” said Hernandez, who is Republican.



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