There's plenty of incentive to learn English as is, without government mandates, etc. As you've noted, immigrants have historically been slow to acquire English proficiency, but eventually they recognize the financial and social incentives to learn the language of the majority.

It's also very difficult to learn new languages as an adult-- children are far better-equipped to acquire new ones. So you see what you see in the majority of immigrant-heavy areas-- the parents speak very little English, whereas the children who were born here are fluent in both languages. Given time, the tremendous financial and social advantages inherent to learning English do the work for you.

Mandating English might accelerate that process, though it would be an odd precedent-- we don't deny services to the illiterate, handicapped, severely retarded, or other groups that can't speak, read, and/or write in English. In the short term, however, it would definitely do a lot of harm to communities where English proficiency is low, and there's a lot of legitimate questions about whether this harm outstrips any longer-term gains.

If all government business must be conducted in English, what happens if an immigrant (or for that matter, tourist) is the victim of a crime? Would they have to hire a translator to report the crime to the police? (Presently, the police will generally provide a translator, by telephone if the language is uncommon.) What if the officer and victim both speak Spanish more easily than English? Why not let them speak Spanish to get the story?

That said, if the issue in question has a functional consequence, I think it's more open for debate. For example, I'm fine with the road signs on driving tests being written in English (even if the questions are in another language), because when you drive, the road signs will be in English. But most of the laws being proposed don't have those kinds of strong functional reasons for their existence-- they are very broad, and strike me only as convenient ways to force immigrants out of a town.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com