Senate Vote Reignites Debate Over English Language

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• GWEN IFILL:

  The president said it clearly last week: If illegal immigrants are to get on the path to U.S. citizenship, they will have to embrace the English language.

  GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States: English is also the key to unlocking the opportunity of America. English allows newcomers to go from picking crops to opening a grocery, from cleaning offices to running offices, from a life of low-paying jobs to a diploma, a career, and a home of their own.

• GWEN IFILL:

  The debate over speaking English has recently been re-ignited as immigration reform makes its way through Congress. Should English be the nation's official language, the national language? Isn't it already?

• GEORGE W. BUSH:

  El hijo de mi hermano…

• GWEN IFILL:

  Many of the roughly 12 million illegal immigrants who live and work in the United States remain wedded to their native language. Sometimes cultures clash, as occurred recently when music promoters recorded a Spanish language version of the national anthem.

• GREG WALDROP:

  I mean, you've got different people from all over the world that come. And, you know, people that might not necessarily understand English, they want to hear the national anthem. You know, why not?

• GWEN IFILL:

  The president waded into that debate at a White House news conference.

• GEORGE W. BUSH:

  … because I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English. And I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English, and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Tensions surrounding the language issue surfaced again when Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe proposed mandating English as the national language.

  SEN. JAMES INHOFE (R), Oklahoma: This is your last chance to vote to make English the national language.

  SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), Senate Minority Leader: I really believe this amendment is racist. I think it's directed basically to people who speak Spanish.

• GWEN IFILL:

  But that approach, as well as a competing amendment that declares English the "common and unifying language" of the nation, passed. Neither statute, however, would change or override existing laws. Still, far from Capitol Hill, the English language debate continues to rage.

• MOISES ALCARAZ:

  I agree 100 percent. Why? Because we're staying in America, and we're supposed to speak English.

• GWEN IFILL:

  And among recent additions to the ranks of legal immigrants here, there appears to be one overarching view.

• JURGITA DARGIT:

  This is the United States of America, and we have to put — if really want to come here and be citizens, something we have to learn, I think.