For the first time in U.S. history, President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order declaring English as the nation’s official language, a White House official confirmed Friday.
While the official did not provide a timeline for the signing, the Wall Street Journal first reported the move.
The United States has never had an official federal language, though 32 states have designated English as their official tongue, according to ProEnglish, a group that advocates for the policy.
Trump has long tied English usage to his hardline stance on immigration, a key theme of both his presidential campaigns.
During his 2016 run, Trump criticized Republican rival Jeb Bush for speaking Spanish on the campaign trail. At a 2015 news conference in New York, he declared:
“We’re a nation that speaks English.”
The executive order will rescind a policy put in place by former Democratic President Bill Clinton, which required federal agencies and recipients of federal funds to provide language assistance to non-English speakers.
This change follows a series of executive actions Trump has taken since returning to office, including an order barring federal funds from supporting undocumented immigrants.
The issue of English as the official language has sparked controversy, particularly in states like Texas, where Spanish has played a significant role in public life.
In 2011, a Texas state senator demanded that an immigrant rights activist speak English instead of Spanish at a legislative hearing, reigniting a longstanding debate over the use of Spanish in the state.
Texas, once part of Mexico and before that the Spanish Empire, has a deep history with Spanish speakers. Many older Mexican-American Texans recall being punished in the 1950s for speaking Spanish in schools.
With Trump’s executive order, the debate over language, culture, and immigration in the U.S. is set to intensify in the months ahead.
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