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Subscribe to RSSUpdated at 8:40 p.m. ET: WALNUT, Calif. -- For Walnut residents who do not speak English, participating in City Council meetings and addressing local officials may soon become more difficult.
Council members voted 5-0 this week to postpone a decision on a proposal that would ask non-English speakers to provide their own interpreters for all Council proceedings, which would be conducted only in English.
But the prospect of English-only public meetings remains a distinct possibility. A vote may happen later this month, when the council is scheduled to meet again on July 25.
Though a formal decision has yet to be made, the proposed English-only policy has already raised concerns among some local residents, who fear the move would violate civil rights and unfairly disadvantage a portion of the population.
Nearly two-thirds of Walnut's residents and three of the five council members are Asian.
The proposal comes at the helm of decades of similar policies targeting the growing immigrant population in nearby cities in the San Gabriel Valley, which has transitioned from a predominantly Caucasian collection of suburbs into a center of Asian culture in Southern California.
The English-only proposal was brought to the council by local resident Wendy Barend Toy, who said she could not understand several commenters who spoke Chinese when addressing the council.
On Wednesday, the council voted to seek federal review from the U.S. Department of Justice before making a decision on the proposal.
Daisy Duan, 27, a graduate student at the University of Southern California who speaks limited English, said in Chinese that the proposal would "definitely" affect her ability to participate in local politics.
"I feel like English is still very difficult," Duan said. "I know many first-generation immigrants who, when they came to America, could not speak even a single word ... It's not fair."
Duan added that she thinks the proposal is particularly problematic in California, which has a higher proportion of immigrants than any other state.
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According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Asians represented nearly 64 percent of Walnut’s population. Whites accounted for about 24 percent, and blacks for nearly 3 percent, with the remaining residents from other races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race represented about 19 percent of the population.
Walnut Councilman Tom King said Friday that the city simply can not afford to hire an interpreter for every meeting. He supports the idea of English-only meetings but has reservations about specifics in the proposal.
King said it is uncommon for residents to address the council in a language other than English, so the demand for an interpreter does not justify the costs.
"It would be a financial restriction and waste of money," King said.
He added that the last time a resident spoke to the council in a language other than English was when a Mandarin-speaking resident came to the podium in April.
Still, King said the council hopes to represent all voices and has considered alternative solutions.
"Nobody wants to disenfranchise anybody," King said. "It's just that our meetings are held in English, and we have someone record the meetings in English, and if they speak [a different language], their remarks are not understood."
King said he has suggested that the Council create a "standby volunteer interpreter list" to provide language support.
But Sissy Trinh, an active member of local advocacy group Southeast Asian Community Alliance, said she has noticed that similar initiatives in other cities ended up as "abysmal" failures. Translation is a mentally exhausting activity and volunteer help can be unreliable, she added.
"You have to assume that people can take that time off and that they're willing to," Trinh said. "You don't know what the quality [of translation] is, and I've heard of cases where people are brought in to translate and end up speaking the wrong dialect."
Trinh added that she considered the proposal a "civil rights violation" that "definitely doesn't build trust with government officials."
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But King said he was not worried about volunteer recruitment. There are many bilingual students in the region who are eager to give back to their community, he said.
Austin Yuan, 25, a first generation immigrant who is fluent in English, said he could understand the motives behind the proposal.
"As a citizen, you have to understand that perhaps it's not just the responsibility of the government to just serve you," Yuan said. "They have to look at everyone."
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Still, Yuan said he sympathized with citizens who do not speak English and feel they are being "cheated out of their tax money."
The legal debate will likely come down to an "access issue" for those who do not speak English, according to Los Angeles-based civil rights attorney Lisa Maki.
She said it's a complicated issue, but added that developing a volunteer interpreter datase will likely help the city of Walnut avoid legal problems.
The Council is expected to vote on the matter later this month, pending input from the U.S. Department of Justice on any civil rights or legal issues associated with the proposal.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to properly describe how the U.S. Census accounts for Hispanics or Latinos: People who identified themselves as Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban or listed their “origin” as Spanish, Hispanic or Latino. Hispanics or Latinos may be of any race.
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Leave a Comment:
Help me Understand this .
A Graduate Student at USC can barely speak English .
My Wife would have to now burn her Association with her Fraternity Sisters.
Amazing isn't it. Now America accomodates every other language except their own. ENGLISH!!!
English only, now there's a novelty. Good for the Walnut City Counsel.
Daisy Duan, 27, a graduate student at the University of Southern California who speaks limited English, said in Chinese that the proposal would "definitely" affect her ability to participate in local politics.
"I feel like English is still very difficult," Duan said. "I know many first-generation immigrants who, when they came to America, could not speak even a single word ... It's not fair."
Stay in China than and get your education there.Simple. WTF teaches her in Chinese at USC?
The consensus is speak english or tough shizznit Cool! now can we spread the word around not just
from the safety of your' keyboard,
What did you use to type that DF.
Way to go. It's about time.
The real problem is that if you are like Daisy Duan, who says she is a graduate student of USC, why does not she take additional courses to be fully proficient in English instead of wasting her time and energy advocating the use of other languages in our daily lives in another country. By the way, life's never fair, whether you are in America or anywhere else - you make what is fair and what is not.
Take back your country you wimps, and stop being politically correct,LOL!
No, other country allows it's language to be so bastardized than the US.
Learn English you big babies! Do you think if you went to Mexico they are going to accommodate your lack of Spanish speaking skills in public forums? Yeah right. Winners speak English in this country, losers something else.
As it should be! About time. Every town, city, county, state, and the feds, need to adapt English as the official and only language spoken and written.
The United States of America needs to remain an English speaking only country. If people don't like it, they need to go back to their native country.
Creo que es muy bueno porque no hablo espanol.
Sin embargo, usted puede escribir en español. Bastante bueno.
Learn English chico!
Learn English Paco.
Learn English... if I lived in France I'd learn to speak French. If I lived in Germany I'd learn to speak German. You live in the US so you should learn English if not...that's your own problem.
Let's make this easy OK! Screw Political correctness, when you immigrate to America, and become a Citizen it is incumbent upon you to LEARN the Language, Not look for reasons ( Because it's so Hard!!!)so you don't have to! Here's the Policy, Learn English, or give up your citizenship, Get the F#$K out and go back to where ever the F@#K you came from!!! Understand America speaks ENGLISH I'm tired of press 1 for English Got it Geez, Get a clue
America. Please remember that California is in America. We speak English here, have for several centuries. Learn English, generations of American had to learn English.
By the way, typical of NBC reporting...civil rights are brought up immediately (always a victim somewhere) and when you add up the ethnicities you get 116%!
If you can't speak the language of the country, why then should you be able to try to alter policy in the town where you live. If I were to go to another country to live, I would have to learn their language. Civil rights being violated...PLEASE! My grandparents moved here, had to learn the language. It's just what you do when you move to another country. ENGLISH should be the official language, otherwise, my civil rights as a citizen are being violated if I can't understand the conversation. I can't go to germany, and expect the government to consider my point of view if I can't express it for them to understand. Can this country get a grip on reality and stop trying to cater to everyone who does not work for what they get.
Many of our ancestors had to learn English if they wanted to live in America. Why shouldn't all immigrants learn our national language? If we were to move to another country, we would be expected to learn that country's language. Why should the USA cater to immigrants? It's rediculous. My ancestors had to change their names as well in order to fit in (Italian-American). Next, our national language will be English/Spanish/Chinese, et. The bi-linguals are taking away jobs from English speaking only, US born citizens as it is. I'm totally against all this.
I know when I applied to Graduate School I had to write a five page minimum letter to the school of my objectives and philosophy toward my educational goals.
It was in English.
This is the USA - About Damn Time !
How many of our troops would have been saved if they knew 75% or more of the Arabic language...the US Soldiers would have understood who is who and who to trust more sooner than later in the middle east conflict we have with the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Not the issue here Spaniard. I guess that you preferred the Moors.
In Afganistan they would have had to learn Pastune or some of the other languages that are spoken there. As you can see I have enough problems with English yet it is the only language that I claim to speak.
ENGLISH ONLY DAMNIT! I live near Miami, Florida and the cuban have been here 30 - 40 years and still do not speak English. Pathetic@!
The last time I looked California was still part of the USA (though sometimes I question that). English should be our official language. No one should be allowed to become a citizen until they read, write, and speak English fluently enough to vote on an English ballot, take a drivers license test in English, etc. I a person is not a citizen, why are they allowed to participate in a city council meeting?
Daisy Duan, 27, a graduate student at the University of Southern California who speaks limited English, said in Chinese that the proposal would "definitely" affect her ability to participate in local politics.
How on earth did she get into a graduate program in a US University with a limited ability to speak English?
How many others thought this was going to be about spanish vs. english?
It doesn't matter this is America; English ONLY damnit!
this is a no brainer folks. English only
In case they didn't tell you when you immigrated to this country, we speak English. If English is not what you want to learn and speak I suggest you move to a country where you can be understood.
Those who complain about not being accommodated in their native language should go back to where they came from. Nobody should get special accommodation. Enough is enough! Adapt, shut up or ship out.
I am sure your great grandparrents did the same thing like learn how to speak Native American language.
O WAIT THEY JUST WIPED ALL THE NATIVE AMERICANS OUT
I am a first generation immigrant. It took me a year to learn English. Every other immigrant should do the same. If you want to speak another language, go back to where you came from! These issues are irritating. I find it scary that the official language of this country is up for dabate...