Arkansas Republican Immigration Platform Changes
The Republican Party of Arkansas posted its final adopted 2010 Platform this morning on it website. As noted earlier, a few changes were made from the floor. The most noticable is some changes to the immigration section.
In the orginal platform committee draft, one paragraph read…
“We support English being recognized as the official language of the United States of America. This does not preclude governmental use of other languages in documentation and forms.”
The final version changed this paragraph to read…
“We support English being recognized as the official language of the United States of America. This does not preclude governmental use of other languages in documentation and forms. We oppose the printing of voter registration forms in any language other than English. As for the situation of millions of illegal aliens in our country, we believe that the combination of raids, deportation, cutting benefits, and enforcement immigration law by local police will remove the majority of illegal aliens from the State of Arkansas. We therefore support a concentrated effort to use attrition and enforcement to remove as many illegal aliens as possible without giving any path to citizenship or any other reward to those residing in the state illegally.”
July 28th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
They can’t have it both ways. If they truly do support English being the language of the United States, they should not have the sentence that states, “This does not preclude governmental use of other languages in documentation and forms.” If English is the language of the US, there will be NO need for other languages!! Just typical of the Republican party trying not to offend people.
July 28th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
I’m not sure I completely follow that logic NomoreCommies. English can be your “official” language but for the benefit of visitors to your country you should still be allowed to print things in other languages. Would you prefer that the Smithsonian not print materials in other languages or the Visitors Bureau of our states? I would like to encourage tourists from other countries to come to the US.
I’m not against English being our “official language”. But that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to print something in another language. If someone comes to the US legally from say France, I think it would be helpful if the entry forms and whatever information they’re supplied is written in French so that we can be assured that they understand our laws and regulations.
I also find it interesting that English is not the official language in England or Australia either.