Texas Town Adopts Spanish As Official Language

I don't care about the language but a safe haven?

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Any federal funding they get, I hope they lose.

EL CENIZO, Texas (Reuters) - The border town of El Cenizo, whose population is heavily Hispanic, has adopted Spanish as its official language and declared the community a safe haven for illegal immigrants, officials said Friday.

The ramshackle town of 7,800 people is located just south of Laredo, Texas, across the Rio Grande River from Mexico.

Mayor Rafael Rodriguez told Reuters that he and most of the town's residents speak only Spanish. Many are first-generation immigrants, both legal and illegal. Rodriguez himself crossed into the United States illegally from Mexico but became a U.S. citizen in 1995.

``In past administrations, the meetings were done in English and they did not explain anything,'' Rodriguez said.

The result, he said, was widespread apathy.

The City Council voted last week to make Spanish, not English, the town's official language. That means that town business will be conducted in Spanish, which then will be translated into English for official documents to meet the requirements of Texas law.

Rodriguez says the City Council's intent was not to usurp English or create divisions, but to make local government more accessible to the town's residents.

``What we are looking for is that the people of the community who attend the meetings and who only speak Spanish be able to voice their opinions,'' Rodriguez said.

The ``safe haven'' ordinance forbids city staff, which consists of one employee and two volunteers, from helping the U.S. Border Patrol find illegal immigrants or inquiring about any person's immigration status.

The intent was to avoid meddling in peoples' lives, Rodriguez said.

``We are not protecting them and neither are we turning them in,'' he said.

City Secretary Elsa Degollado estimated that the town's population currently includes 1,000 illegal immigrants.

Rodriguez said he did not expect any reprisals triggered by the new ordinances.

But Linda Evans, a spokeswoman for Texas Gov. George W. Bush, said his office has contacted ``relevant state and federal authorities to ensure that the laws, including illegal immigration laws, are being enforced.''

``As a general rule, Governor Bush believes that government business in America should be conducted in English,'' Evans said.

The measure drew a sharp response from English First, a group based in Springfield, Virginia that advocates making English America's official language.

The group's executive director, Jim Boulet, said El Cenizo may be the first U.S. town to have adopted Spanish as its official language -- a step that policy makers should take as a ''warning sign'' of things to come.

``Will we call this town 'America's first Quebec?''' asked Boulet, referring to the French-speaking Canadian province. ''Language divisions rather quickly lead to other divisions.''

``It proves we really need a national language policy sooner rather than later,'' he said.

 

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Are there a lot of Hispanic majority towns?

 

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LMAO! Hell, we have Hispanic majority STATES!

 

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Normally I would say that the feds will ensure that that town gets theirs, but as inept as this adminstrtion (both executive and congressional) is, I don't see anything happening there. :shrug:

 

Oh, which ones?

 

I can see the Army setting up recruiting stations. "If you enlist, you get citizenship"

 

You seem to know quite a bit about the U.S. in every other aspect, yet you are completely clueless about our immigration issues? Pfft. Whatever.
Why don't you go back to one of the religious/political threads and stir shit up there? You seem to be quite avid at that.

 

Whats with the ants in the pants boy?

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Carry your grudges around, d'you?

 

Hawaii, Washington DC, Texas, New Mexico and California as a majority-minority states. TX, CA, and NM and the Hispanic majority ones.
Maryland, Mississippi, Georgia, New York and Arizona are sitting at about 40% right now. (only AZ is the Hispanic one)

 

I think they already have those.

 

Whats a majority-minority state?

 

What is typically considered minority (Hispanic, Black, Asian) has now become the majority. Whites are the minority in these states.

 

Ah okay, is there so much difference in the birth rate then, or has immigration from white majority countries been less in comparison?

 

I don't think it has a dang thing to do with birth rate. Maybe at one time it did, but not anymore. If it did, Arizona and Florida would have been Hispanic majority a long long time ago.

 

The fact that they claim to be a "safe haven for illegal immigrants" would be acceptable if they were actively working with those people to become legal residents. I don't mind the fact that they want to declare Spanish as their primary language. However, with a mayor who was once an illegal immigrant now openly supporting other criminals, they don't seem to be supportive of their role in American government (illegal immigrants and the disregard for federal laws). It may be that I am wrong about this town, and the mayor Rodriguez, but this nation is supposed to work from the federal government down to the state, county, and city governments, not the other way around. It would make sense to me if there were law enforcement officials in that town within days of this declaration.

 

Nice comeback. IAC, is that you???

Only where spamming, trolling and excessive, unnecessary bashing of the U.S. is concerned. I'll be happy to shut the hell up if you can find more than 1 post/thread of mine where I incessantly bash India, for no reason.

Typically, the people from white majority countries actually try to get here legally. And while some of them don't know English when they get here, they actually put forth an effort to try to speak English.
The house I bought a few months ago, I bought from a Serbian couple. They both spoke broken English but I could tell they were putting forth an effort and they are here legally.
I have NO problem with anyone coming here to make a better life for themselves, as long as they do it legally, and understand that the U.S. speaks English; not Swahili, not Farsi, not Russian, not Arabic, not German. English.

 

I miss Jimmy :bawl:

You're thinking its personal, its not; its a global frustration with the invading and killing and fear mongering and "free trading"

So Americans who go elsewhere first learn the language? And speak the local dialects?

 

They don't learn it first, but they try to learn some of it. Its why they all carry translation dictionaries. And if they live there they learn it.
What kind of Americans do you know?? They seem awfully rude.

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The ones that travel in groups and whine about everything very loudly?

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But they spend muchos moolah so most people just take it.

http://www.helium.com/tm/267735/until-recent-years-americans

 

What happened to him? There was a poll to ban him but I thought we all voted to keep him here.

I thoroughly understand that. I'm not too happy with our government (excecutive or congress) either.
Every member on this site knows your opinion of the U.S and its foreign policy. There's no need to constantly reiterate it (rather harshly in some threads) I might add; if you would state your opinions professionally, tactfully, w/o being condescending, and w/o the accusatory undertones, I wouldn't have a problem with it. And if you made your points w/o thinking that the Arabs/Muslims were totally blame free in this whole mess (which they're not), I would also have no problem with it.
The comment that DH made about the Marines in the Haditha thread was just uncalled for. <---Stuff like that is exactly what I'm talking about. The U.S. Military does what they're instructed to. When they don't, and do something illegal, they get charged. Would India's military just up and mutiny if your government was doing something similar?
Oh, and look at your avatar. IIRC, that looks like an insurgent/terrorist to me...except for the fact that he's holding an M-16 and not an AK.
sorry for the hijack orleander. back to our regularly scheduled thread....

YES! (at least I did).
I spent 3 years in Germany (including graduating from H.S.) as an Army brat. I knew we were going 8 months before that. I deliberately took German in my H.S. here in the states before I went. I interacted with German locals when I was there and continually took German classes in school. By the time I left, I could pretty much speak fluent German. In addition to speaking proper German, since we lived in Nuernberg, I also picked up a slight Bavarian dialect.
The point of the matter is, is that if I, a 16 year old boy (at the time) could put forth an effort to learn the language of the country that I was going to live in, so can everyone else (learn English) that comes to live in the U.S.
And if I happen to go live in any other country that doesn't speak English to live, I will learn that language. Although I'd love to go back to Germany and live there.