Resolved, that English should be made the official language of the United States

Language may be the most important aspect to assimilating into a society. When a member of a community cannot understand the lingua franca, that will prevent them from becoming a productive citizen and will alienate everybody else. We currently see many people (about 15 million), mostly immigrants, in the United States who cannot even speak English, and that completely shuts them out from interacting with born Americans. It is estimated that 322 languages are actively spoken in the United States, and right now it is the government's responsibility to translate all official documents into all of those languages. Making English the official language of the United States would not eliminate all of those other languages, it would simply unite everybody around one common tongue so that Americans could communicate much better with each other. As President Theodore Roosevelt once said, "We have one language here, and that is the English language, and we intend to see that the [assimilation] crucible turns our people out as Americans." The idea of assimilation relies upon the ability of an immigrant to become a part of the society they are joining, and that's impossible without being able to communicate with anybody outside of their own group. And no, the American theme of the "melting pot" does not mean that immigrants are not expected to assimilate into American society. On the contrary, it means that immigrants are expected to fully join American culture and perhaps influence it with parts of their own. This cannot happen if people from different cultures and different native languages cannot even happen. Some might say that this is a useless proposition. I completely disagree. Clearly defining English as the official language of this country will help immigrants be more successful in this country and it will make government more efficient. As it is, the government is responsible for translating documents into all 322 languages spoken in this country. This should just not be their responsibility and it is a large waste of our nation's resources. But these services are not only hurting the government, they are hurting the people that they are intended for. Having a crutch like this is problematic for people trying to assimilate. A study published by the Department of Labor in the Monthly Labor Review states that immigrants are slower to learn English when they receive a lot of native language support. Providing excessive langauge support creates a dependence on "linguistic welfare" which relegates immigrants to low-paying jobs and prevents them from realizing the American Dream and moving beyound that. Learning English should be the first step in the immigration process. The ability of communication is truly essential for anybody to function as a member of a society. Making English the official language of the United States will make the government more efficient and it will encourage immigrants to learn the language that is necessary to survive in this country. For the American Dream and this country's melting pot ideals to fully be realized, everybody must have a common language in order to flourish.