Hispanics Upset After Small Illinois City Adopts English As Official Language

Hispanics are complaining because an Illinois village of 4,400 -- 70 of whom are Hispanic -- has approved an ordinance adopting English as its official language for village board meetings, village correspondence and village website purposes.  The ordinance allows for exceptions regarding public health and safety.  The Chicago Tribune also reports that Hispanics are feeling "threatened" in another Illinois village after voters elected three trustee candidates who vowed to crackdown on illegal immigration:

Within minutes of claiming victory, Paul Humpfer, Judy Sigwalt and first-time candidate Keith Hinz promised to bring a proposed ordinance called the Illegal Alien Immigration Relief Act back to the forefront. The proposal, which has divided this community for months, calls for fining landlords who rent to undocumented residents.

The measure also would suspend the licenses of businesses employing them. It's modeled after a controversial ordinance in Hazelton, Pa., currently tied up in the courts.

Carpentersville has a growing Hispanic population, estimated to be about forty percent of the Village's population: 

But even if the measure never gets approved, talk about illegal immigrants here has sharpened the community's focus on its burgeoning Hispanic population. At least two trustees have talked about making English the official language at Village Hall.

City officials declined to even hazard a guess as to how many undocumented people live in the community. Precise numbers aren't available.

 It's easy to see what might be angering many of the Village's residents:

Today, one can see Mexican flags hanging from the windows of these houses or the names of Mexican hometowns scrawled on the rear windows of cars.

The current crisis, some say, began to percolate over allegations of crowded housing and questions about unpaid ambulance bills that two trustees blamed on illegal immigrants. Concerns about funding morphed into a debate about undocumented residents.

It's regrettable that local governments have to resort to dealing with aspects of illegal immigration in the first place.  The federal government has done an abysmal job in regulating the border.  Unless the feds take their constitutional duty to protect the border more seriously, more local communities will take measures that will inevitably lead to tension, division and perhaps even open conflicts.  If so, most of the blame will be shouldered by the feds. 

Comments

[Robert M.]

As a libertarian I object to any "national language," but I can understand where these people are coming from. The thing is, I think instead of a national language we just let storeowners and whatnot refuse to speak Spanish or hire Spanish speaking immigrants. That way the government isn't saying we have to speak English, but it is allowing at the same time, Americans to make it very difficult for those who don't speak English, as of course, they should be.