Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Friday making English the official language of the United States, according to White House officials
The US president is also expected to scrap requirements that federal agencies provide language services to non-English speakers.
The US has never had an official language in the nearly 250 years since the country was founded.
The order is intended to improve government efficiency and promote national unity, according to White House officials.
Nearly 68 million of the country’s 340 million residents speak a language other than English, according to the US Census Bureau, which includes more than 160 Native American tongues.
Friday’s executive order will roll back a policy from 2000 signed by former President Bill Clinton requiring government agencies and federal funding recipients to “ensure that their programs and activities normally provided in English are accessible to LEP (low-English proficiency) persons”.
Agencies will still be allowed to provide that language access to non-English speakers, according to White House officials.
Republicans have led efforts in the past to label English as the country’s official language, with members of the House as recently as 2021 introducing legislation on it that failed.
Those who opposed those efforts say that the country does not need an official language, pointing to the high numbers of people who speak it and to the country never having one, while also saying establishing one could promote discrimination against non-English speakers.
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