ProEnglish

Last updated
ProEnglish
Formation1994
Type American nationalism
Anti-Mexican sentiment
Anti-Hispanic sentiment
Anti-Spanish sentiment
Headquarters20 F Street NW, 7th Floor
Location
Executive Director
Stephen D. Guschov
Website www.proenglish.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

ProEnglish is an American nonprofit lobbying organization that is part of the English-only movement. [1] The group supports making English the only official language of the United States. [2] The group has also campaigned against immigration reform and bilingual education.

Contents

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Anti-Defamation League, which track extremist groups in the United States, identify the group as an anti-immigrant group. [3] [4] The SPLC designated the organization as a hate group. [5] [6] [7]

Founding and leadership

The group was founded in 1994 as English Language Advocates. [8] The group was established by John Tanton, a leading figure in the anti-immigration movement, along with several of his associates from the organization U.S. English, [9] from which Tanton had resigned after a controversy over racially-charged memos that he had written. [3] The organization is part of Tanton's broader "loose-knit" network of anti-immigration organizations; others include Californians for Population Stabilization, the Center for Immigration Studies, NumbersUSA, and Social Contract Press. [10] As of 2015, ProEnglish "is one of the few remaining groups in Tanton's network in which he remains actively involved." [3] ProEnglish is a project of US Inc., a Petoskey, Michigan-based 501(c)(3) group that is also part of the Tanton network. [11] Dr. Tanton died in July 2019. [12]

The group was originally based in Arlington, Virginia, [8] where it shared office space with NumbersUSA. [13] Its headquarters are now located in Washington, D.C. [4] Robert D. Park was the first chair of the group. [14] Later, Rosalie Pedalino Porter became chair of the group. [15]

The group's former executive directors are K.C. McAlpin [2] and Robert "Bob" Vandervoort. [3] [16] In 2016, Sam Pimm, former executive director of Young Americans for Freedom and former executive director of a pro-Ben Carson super PAC, became executive director of the group. [17] Subsequently, Stephen D. Guschov, a lawyer who formerly worked at Liberty Counsel, became executive director of the group. [18]

Beliefs and activities

Map of US official language status by state before 2016. Blue: English declared the official language; light-blue: 2 official languages, including English; gray: no official language specified. USA states english official language.svg
Map of US official language status by state before 2016. Blue: English declared the official language; light-blue: 2 official languages, including English; gray: no official language specified.

ProEnglish has been a major part of the "English-as-official-language movement." [19] The group also has opposed comprehensive immigration reform. [20] The chief purpose of the organization at the time of its founding was to defend the Arizona "Official English" ballot initiative, which was adopted in 1988, overturned by the Arizona Supreme Court in 1998, and re-enacted in revised form by Arizona voters in 2006. [9] The group has also supported federal English-only legislation, specifically the English Language Unity Act. [21] In addition to seeking the enactment of laws and policies declaring English to be the official language, ProEnglish "seeks to end bilingual education, repeal federal mandates for the translation of government documents and voting ballots in languages other than English." [8] Among ProEnglish's key priorities is the rescission of Executive Order 13166, an executive order signed by President Bill Clinton which states that any entity that receives federal funds "must provide whatever services it offers in any foreign language spoken by anyone likely to receive those services." [1] ProEnglish also opposes Puerto Rican statehood unless Puerto Rico were to adopt English as its official language. [8]

The group's reported ties to the white nationalist movement have drawn scrutiny. [20] [22] The Anti-Defamation League wrote in 2014 that the group had a "nativist agenda and xenophobic origins and ties." [4] Robert Vandervoort of Illinois, the former executive director of ProEnglish, was head of the Chicagoland Friends of American Renaissance , the racist magazine led by Jared Taylor that serves as an outlet for white nationalist ideology. [16] In 2012, ProEnglish hosted a panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on "The Failure of Multiculturalism," on which one of the panelists was VDARE founder Peter Brimelow. [23] The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups in the United States, designated the group as a hate group in its 2014, 2015, and 2016 annual reports. [5] [6] [7] The group has dismissed such criticism. [24]

ProEnglish was a major backer of the unsuccessful 2009 Nashville Charter Amendment 1, a local "English First" ballot referendum in Nashville, Tennessee, which would have generally required government communication and publications to be printed in English only. [25] ProEnglish donated $82,500, about 92% of the total amount raised by the referendum's supporters. [22] The referendum was rejected by Nashville voters. [22] [25] In 2012, ProEnglish was the leading force behind a successful effort to make English the official language of Frederick County, Maryland; the county enacted an ordinance closely based on one drafted by the group. [19] However, in 2015, the country repealed the ordinance, marking a defeat for the organization. [3]

In 2013, ProEnglish vocally opposed the comprehensive immigration reform bill sponsored by the "Gang of Eight," a bipartisan group of U.S. senators. ProEnglish carried out a radio ad campaign against U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, who was part of the Gang of Eight. [20]

In 2014, ProEnglish criticized The Coca-Cola Company for airing a Super Bowl commercial that showed people of different ethnicities singing "America, the Beautiful" in a variety of languages. ProEnglish condemned Coca-Cola (saying the ad fostered "disunity") and urged its supporters to contact the company to express opposition. [4]

Litigation history

In 2005, ProEnglish was helping pay the legal fees of at least two employers who had an "English-only rule" requiring employees to speak only English while on the job. [2] ProEnglish paid the legal fees of Terri Bennett, a former nursing student at Pima Community College (PCC) in Tucson, Arizona, "who claimed she was wrongly suspended for complaining when fellow students spoke Spanish to one another in class." [26] [24] At trial, the evidence showed that Bennett had called Hispanic classmates "spics, beaners and illegals" and the Spanish language "gibberish." [26] A jury unanimously rejected Bennett's claims, and in 2015 ordered her to pay $111,000 in attorney's fees to PCC. [26]

In 2008, ProEnglish, along with the Pacific Legal Foundation, filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging 2004 U.S. Department of Health and Human Service regulations that required federally funded healthcare providers to provide translation services for patients who do not speak English. The challengers claimed that the regulations were an "illegal intrusion" on healthcare providers. U.S. District Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz dismissed the suit in 2009. [27]

In EEOC v. Kidmans (2005), ProEnglish helped fund the litigation costs of a small drive-in restaurant in Page, Arizona, that was sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after it refused to retract an English-on-the-job rule. The restaurant said that the rule was adopted to stop "trash talking" in the Navajo language among employees, most of whom are Navajo. [28] The EEOC and the restaurant owners ultimately negotiated a settlement, in which the employers "may require employees to speak English while dealing with the public, but not at other times." [29]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Poverty Law Center</span> American nonprofit legal organization

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white supremacist groups, for its classification of hate groups and other extremist organizations, and for promoting tolerance education programs. The SPLC was founded by Morris Dees, Joseph J. Levin Jr., and Julian Bond in 1971 as a civil rights law firm in Montgomery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English-only movement</span> Political movement in the U.S.

The English-only movement, also known as the Official English movement, is a political movement that advocates for the use of only the English language in official United States government operations through the establishment of English as the only official language in the United States. The United States has never had a legal policy proclaiming an official national language. However, at some times and places, there have been various moves to promote or require the use of English, such as in Native American boarding schools.

Virginia Deane Abernethy is an American anthropologist and activist. She is professor emerita of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She has published research on population demography and immigration. She ran for Vice President of the United States in 2012 alongside Merlin Miller for the American Third Position, a party that promotes white nationalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traditional Values Coalition</span> American conservative Christian organization

The Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) was an American conservative Christian organization. It was founded in 1980 at Anaheim California by Rev. Louis P. Sheldon to oppose LGBT rights. Sheldon's daughter, Andrea Sheldon Lafferty, was initially the executive director and presently serves as president. TVC was influential in the 1980s and 1990s in lobbying for government policy based in Christian fundamentalism.

Immigration reduction refers to a government and social policy in the United States that advocates a reduction in the amount of immigration allowed into the country. Steps advocated for reducing the numbers of immigrants include advocating stronger action to prevent illegal entry and illegal migration, and reductions in non-immigrant temporary work visas. Some advocate tightening the requirements for legal immigration requirements to reduce numbers, or move the proportions of legal immigrants away from those on family reunification programs to skills-based criteria.

Cordelia Scaife May was a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-area political donor and philanthropist. An heiress to the Mellon-Scaife family fortune, she was one of the wealthiest women in the United States. Her philanthropy and political causes included environmentalism, birth control and family planning; overpopulation control measures, making English the official language of the United States, and strict immigration restrictions to the United States. According to The New York Times, "she bankrolled the founding and operation of the nation’s three largest restrictionist groups—the Federation for American Immigration Reform, NumbersUSA and the Center for Immigration Studies," and she left the bulk of her assets to the Colcom Foundation, whose major activity has been the sponsorship of immigration restriction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federation for American Immigration Reform</span> Anti-immigration non-profit organization

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a non profit, anti-immigration organization in the United States. The group publishes position papers, organizes events, and runs campaigns in order to advocate for changes in U.S. immigration policy. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies FAIR as a hate group with ties to white supremacist groups.

NumbersUSA is an anti-immigration advocacy organization that seeks to reduce both legal and illegal immigration to the United States. It advocates for immigration reduction through user-generated fax, email, and direct mail campaigns. In November 2022, the organization announced James Massa, a former Cisco executive, as its next chief executive officer following the retirement of founder Roy Beck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Tanton</span> American white nationalist and anti-immigration activist

John Hamilton Tanton was an American ophthalmologist, white nationalist and anti-immigration activist. He was the founder and first chairman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), an anti-immigration organization. He was the co-founder of the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration think tank; and NumbersUSA, an anti-immigration lobbying group. He was chairman of U.S. English and ProEnglish. He was briefly President of Zero Population Growth. He was the founder of The Social Contract Press, which published a quarterly journal of nativist and white nationalist writers called The Social Contract until Fall 2019. He founded the pro-eugenics organization Society for Genetic Education.

The Social Contract Press (SCP) is an American publisher of white nationalist and anti-immigrant literature. It is a program of U.S. Inc., a foundation formed by John Tanton, who was called by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) "the racist founder and principal ideologue of the modern nativist movement". Founded in 1990, it publishes the quarterly Social Contract journal, as well as reprints and new works.

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) is an anti-immigration think tank. It favors far lower immigration numbers, and produces analyses to further those views. The CIS was founded by historian Otis L. Graham and eugenicist and white nationalist John Tanton in 1985 as a spin-off of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. It is one of a number of anti-immigration organizations founded by Tanton, along with FAIR and NumbersUSA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Save Our State</span> Activism group against illegal immigrants

Save Our State (SOS) is an activist organization opposed to illegal immigration in California. The organization's methodology revolves around the 'transference of pain' and it has been described as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Phil Kent, aka Philip A. Kent is an American media and public relations consultant. Some of Kent's public relations clients include major corporations as well as political organizations. He also was communications director for Fast Auto Loans of Virginia. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and was Honorably Discharged.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell Pearce</span> American law enforcement officer and politician (1947–2023)

Russell Keith Pearce was an American far-right politician who was a Republican (GOP) member of the Arizona State Senate. He rose to national prominence as the primary sponsor of Arizona SB1070, a controversial anti-illegal immigrant measure that was signed into law in 2010. He was elected President of the Arizona Senate when the Senate began its January 2011 term but then suffered a dramatic reversal of fortune when he was ousted in a November 2011 recall election, the first legislator in Arizona history to be so removed from office. He served as Vice-Chair of the Arizona GOP, but he resigned the position in September 2014 after controversy over a eugenicist comment about forced sterilization of poor women on Medicaid.

The Pacifica Forum was a discussion group in Eugene, Oregon, United States. It was hosted by retired University of Oregon professor Orval Etter. It culminated a long slide into extremism by ceasing operations after Etter's death and has not been reconstituted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ACT for America</span> American anti-Muslim advocacy group

ACT for America, founded in 2007, is a U.S.-based anti-Muslim advocacy group that opposes what it calls "the threat of radical Islam" to Americans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John R. Bennett</span> American politician

John R. Bennett is an American politician who served as the chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party from April 2021 to April 2022 and as a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 2011 until 2019.

References

  1. 1 2 Domenico Maceri, Multilingualism: Americans are embracing Spanish, International Herald Tribune (June 24, 2003).
  2. 1 2 3 Miriam Jordan, Testing 'English Only' Rules: Employers Who Require Workers to Speak English Can Face Discrimination Suits, Wall Street Journal (November 8, 2005).
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Anti-Immigrant Group ProEnglish Fails With English-Only Effort in Maryland, Hatewatch, Southern Poverty Law Center (August 27, 2015).
  4. 1 2 3 4 Oren Segal, ProEnglish Attacks Super Bowl Ad Promoting America's Diversity, Anti-Defamation League (February 5, 2014).
  5. 1 2 "Active Anti-Immigrant Groups". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
  6. 1 2 Active Hate Groups in the United States in 2015, Southern Poverty Law Center (February 4, 2016).
  7. 1 2 Active Hate Groups 2016, Intelligence Report (February 15, 2017).
  8. 1 2 3 4 Christina Ziegler-McPherson, "English Only Groups" in Anti-Immigration in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia (Vol. 1: ed. Kathleen R. Arnold: Greenwood, 2011), p. 182.
  9. 1 2 Rosemary C. Salomone, True American (Harvard University Press, 2010), p. 148.
  10. ↑ John Tanton's Network, Intelligence Report, Southern Poverty Law Center (2015).
  11. ↑ About Us, US Inc.
  12. ↑ Matt Schudel (2019-07-26) [2019-07-21]. "John Tanton, architect of anti-immigration and English-only efforts, dies at 85". The Washington Post . Washington, D.C. ISSN   0190-8286. OCLC   1330888409.[ please check these dates ]
  13. ↑ Brian Bennett & Joseph Tanfani, Group opposing immigration bill plans full-scale campaign on House, Los Angeles Times (July 13, 2013).
  14. ↑ Sandra Del Valle, Language Rights and the Law in the United States: Finding Our Voices (Multilingual Matters, 2003), p. 79.
  15. ↑ Testimony of Rosalie Pedalino Porter, Ed.D, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, ProEnglish, Before the United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Regarding H.R. 997, the "English Language Unity Act" (August 2, 2012).
  16. 1 2 Robert W. Sussman, The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea (Harvard University Press, 2014), p. 299.
  17. ↑ ProEnglish Board of Directors Welcomes New Executive Director Sam Pimm (press release), ProEnglish (June 2, 2016).
  18. ↑ Meet the staff, ProEnglish (last accessed December 27, 2017).
  19. 1 2 Michael S. Rosenwald, Frederick County makes English its official language, Washington Post (February 22, 2012).
  20. 1 2 3 Jennifer Rubin, Gang of Eight moves forward, Washington Post (May 14, 2013).
  21. ↑ Rosalie Pedalino Porter, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, ProEnglish, Testimony Before the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution (August 2, 2012).
  22. 1 2 3 Desiree Evans, Largest funder of Nashville's failed English-only amendment had links to hate groups, Facing South, Institute for Southern Studies (January 27, 2009).
  23. ↑ Patrick Caldwell, White Nationalists Agree: Multiculturalism Is Bad, The American Prospect (February 9, 2012).
  24. 1 2 Carol Ann Alaimo, Student suit vs. Pima College draws support of ProEnglish group, Arizona Daily Star (July 14, 2013).
  25. 1 2 Juanita Cousins, Nashville voters reject 'English First' proposal, Associated Press (January 22, 2009).
  26. 1 2 3 Carol Ann Alaimo, Ex-student who sued Pima College must pay $111K, Arizona Daily Star (October 15, 2015).
  27. ↑ Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Filed by ProEnglish Over HHS Guidelines on Translation Services for Patients, Kaiser Health News (June 11, 2009).
  28. ↑ Fighting Words How a tiny drive-in restaurant in Arizona became the center of a bitter battle over English-only rules in the workplace, CNN Money (May 1, 2003).
  29. ↑ Dennis Barron, Not just freedom fries at this English-only drive-in?, The Web of Language (November 23, 2007).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.