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On March 21, Sen. Jim Inhofe reintroduced a bill that “establishes English as the official language of the United States,” requires that “naturalization ceremonies and official functions of the U.S. government, subject to exceptions, must be conducted in English and “declares that all citizens should be able to read and understand generally the English language text of U.S. laws.” The English Language Unity Act of 2019 (S. 678) is an unnecessary bill that hurts Americans.

The so-called Unity Act is a divisive bill that will sow discord among citizens. It erases the original peoples and languages that still populate this country, particularly in Oklahoma. It is unnecessary and wasteful.

The law is divisive. Rather than uniting people, as it claims it will do, it draws a stark line between those who will have access to the laws that should protect them and the services they participate in and those who won’t. By creating obstacles to citizenship, this law willfully ignores the fact that many citizens who are born in the United States do not understand the English text of U.S. laws.