A misspelled sign demanding that English is spoken by a participant in the Bay to Breakers 2010 race of San Francisco. Photo by Jennifer Morrow, via flickr.
Carlos Coba/Contributing Writer
Sen. Marco Rubio, the Cuban-American and Miami-born congressman of Florida, has been leading the passing of a bill that simultaneously legalizes 11 million undocumented immigrants and strengthens border security.
According to Rubio’s official website, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, also known as S.744, “contains the toughest border immigration enforcement measures in U.S. history. It is based on six required security triggers that must be achieved before the newly legalized are allowed to apply for green cards.”
However, there is one colossal stipulation that Rubio’s website fails to mention: the English requirement amendment that the senator is trying to introduce to the bill.
Under the requirements of the bill as it is currently written, those millions affected by it only have to take English classes to be able to change their status. If the amendment is passed, no undocumented immigrant may become a citizen unless he or she passes an exam, thus proving their fluency in English.
To even propose this provision to the bill is blatantly hypocritical on the part of Rubio, given that he talked to millions of people in Spanish in order to get their vote. It seems that whatever the law was back in 2010 when Rubio was elected for Senate, did not seem to trouble him as much as it does now.
Fortunately, the English requirement amendment has not had much success in the Senate. According to a Boston Globe article by Noah Bierman, published on June 24, the requirement was not included within a passed amendment to the bill that focused on border security.
The case might be different in the House, as Bierman points out, since the current majority of the House is Republican.
Without a doubt, the Republican Party is not too eager about the process of legalizing millions of immigrants with the stroke of a pen, which goes to show that Rubio probably added this counterproductive amendment to the bill to appease fellow Republicans. It would not be surprising if they passed this requirement, which would definitely not make it any easier for illegal immigrants to become legal residents.
I am an immigrant, son of an immigrant; my mother did not have an easy time learning English because she was so busy being a mother. That is the biggest issue: immigrants make efforts to learn English as quick as they can, but they are busy working and providing for their families. It’s not fair to deny someone legal status just because they can’t pass an exam; there are ways for immigrants to show that they are trying to improve their English.
Rubio’s hypocrisy has surprised me for once and I’m sure others also feel that way.
opinion@fiusm.com
Sources:
1. “Get The Facts, via Rubio.Senate.gov
2. “English fluency surfaces as GOP immigration issue,” via The Boston Globe
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