He, like them, had freely chosen to live in a country where the language was English. He had freely chosen to become an American not a German-American but simply an American. My father was, of course, only one of the tens of millions of immigrants who have embraced this country. They have been an extraordinarily diverse group, and their diversity has made our gorgeous cultural mosaic what it is. Each immigrant, having chosen to be an American, took on a new identity and by so doing won the right to become that identity.
Immigrants become new people, and by their presence, America becomes a new country.
This is our historic tradition. The 1975 amendments to the Voting Rights Act, by mandating bilingual ballots, abandoned this tradition, thereby making a change of constitutional consequence, amending in effect the very concept of United States citizenship. It is clear from the naturalization statutes that English is presumed to be the language of U.S. citizens. The only exception, enacted in 1990, exempts applicants over 55 years of age who have lived in the United States for at least 15 years. For the overwhelming majority, the requirement of English is perfectly reasonable.