On Saturday, President Trump signed an Executive Order making English the official language of the United States, a first in our nation’s nearly 250 year history. The EO would theoretically allow government agencies and others who receive federal funding to choose whether or not to continue providing documents and services in languages other than English. This order rescinded the longstanding Executive Order 13166, allowing government agencies and entities receiving federal funding to choose whether to continue offering services and documents in languages other than English. This action reinforces the administration’s exclusionary and xenophobic agenda, in addition to dismantling vital language access protections.
Two of the main legal bases for language access at the federal level, are
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Executive Order 13166 (which affirms Title VI’s requirements and outlines additional ones), and with that in threat, it’s more important now than ever for state and local officials to recommit to providing language access, despite efforts to dismantle it at the federal level. While this is a major setback, this administration cannot erase the over 350 vibrant languages spoken across this melting pot of a country.
Although MIRA expects this EO to be challenged in federal court, it highlights the need for MA to pass the Language Access and Inclusion Act, a bill currently sponsored by Sen. Sal DiDomenico, Rep. Adrian Madaro, and Rep. González.
MIRA is a founding member of MassSpeaks, a coalition of organizations led by Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, and Justice Center of Southeast Massachusetts. Together with the bill sponsors, MassSpeaks developed the bill in response to the overwhelming need for accessible public information and services during the COVID-19 pandemic. This need was particularly acute for low-income immigrant state residents, who faced the brunt of the pandemic and resulting economic dislocation.
Faced with an impenetrable barrier of English-only state websites, portals, applications, phone messages and email communications, these residents were forced to rely—and very often continue to rely—on their own small, overwhelmed community organizations to secure desperately-needed services.
On Wednesday, MIRA and MassSpeaks Coalition leaders teamed up with the three bill sponsors for a State House legislative briefing to explain and support the bill, which would increase the capacity of Commonwealth’s executive branch agencies to provide services to state residents who are not proficient in English and create an effective language access infrastructure for our increasingly diverse state.
The Language Access and Inclusion Act would build on Governor Healey’s Executive Order 615 by requiring public-facing state agencies to provide timely and accurate interpretation and translation services, and provides policy guidance on best practices to serve limited English proficient state residents, including the deaf and hard of hearing.
The federal administration has made it clear that speakers of other languages are unwelcome in the United States. As one of the most linguistically diverse states in the country, Massachusetts must act to ensure that ALL of our communities have access to the public services for which they are eligible. The Language Access and Inclusion Act would do exactly that.
If you’d like to support accessible state services for all state residents, follow this link to easily send a message to your legislators, urging them to cosponsor this bill: