By Damariz Arevalo, March 18, 2025
President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating English as the official language of the United States March 1.
It is the first time the U.S. designated an official language at the federal level.
Federal agencies are not mandated to make any changes or remove any services. However, they have the option to not provide translator services or multilingual paperwork for non-English speakers.
Trump’s mandate revokes an order from former President Bill Clinton, who issued signed Executive Order 13166 Aug. 11, 2000.
According to The Hill, Clinton’s order aimed “to improve access to federally conducted and federally assisted programs and activities for persons who, as a result of national origin, are limited in their English proficiency.”
Throughout his campaign run, Trump promoted the idea that designating English as the official language would allow citizens to freely exchange ideas in one shared language.
Amalia Llombart, an English and Modern Languages professor at Cal Poly Pomona who immigrated to the U.S. as a non-English speaker, said she does not believe this new order will benefit the country.
“This is saying something about the immigrants,” Llombart said. “It is diminishing the cultural capital of all the other countries that are not English. This isn’t just a cultural capital of humanity but also the United States. Why not embrace it as a good thing of this country?”
Llombart believes Trump is isolating immigrants with this new order and trying to get immigrants out of the system by not providing essential services.
According to an article published by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2022, 1 in 10 people now speak a language other than English, between 350 to 430 languages spoken in the U.S.
The League of United Latin American Citizens condemned Trump’s new executive order, stating it goes against “the founding principles of our nation” and “marginalizes millions of Americans who contributed to the country’s cultural and economic strength.”
LULAC national president and chairman of the board Roman Palomares also said the Founding Fathers enshrined freedom of speech in the First Amendment without limiting it to one language.
Claudia Salazar Jimenez, an English and Modern Languages professor, believes this approach is racist and does not allow people to express themselves, especially people trying to express themselves freely by speaking Spanish.
“When we talk about freedom of speech, it’s not the speech itself but also the expression of the culture one person brings,” Salazar said. “I think it is an attack to the First Amendment.”
Within hours after Trump’s inauguration, the White House removed the Spanish-language version of its website. The White House’s Spanish X account was also removed.
During Trump’s second campaign, he reached the Spanish-speaking community with Spanish language ads and promised to shield workers from global economic competition and offering wide range of tax-cut proposals.
The U.S. is the second-largest Spanish-speaking country after Mexico, and approximately 43 million people in the U.S. consider Spanish their primary language.
First-generation students are often their parent’s first translators when it comes to phone calls, doctor visits and legal work. Jose Ramirez, a computer information system student, has first-hand experience with his mom, who needs a translator.
“We spoke Spanish because that is what everyone speaks at home, and I would be the one translating for her and fill out paperwork” Ramirez said.
At this moment, no federal agencies have removed their services.
Feature image by Connor Lālea Hampton
