1/25/01 10:15 a.m.
Clinton’s War on English Continues
DOJ’s 30 tongues.

By Jim Boulet Jr., executive director, English First-------jboulet@englishfirst.org

n January 10th, the Department of Justice left the incoming Bush administration a real stinker of a housewarming gift: a "Departmental Plan Implementing Executive Order 13166." The bottom line: Canada has two official languages. Thanks to this document, the U.S. Department of Justice now has at least five and perhaps as many as 30. (You can read the complete document for yourself.)

Executive Order 13166 (issued on August 11, 2000) redefined "national origin discrimination" to include a failure to provide both written and oral translations in any person's choice of language. Each federal agency was ordered to produce a compliance plan.

While on its face, this DOJ "Departmental Plan" claims that "[t]he purpose of Executive Order 13166…is not to create new core services," it imposes a remarkable number of new and costly requirements on every government agency within the DOJ's purview.

First off, the DOJ plan states that "To the maximum extent practical, limited English proficiency shall not act as a barrier or otherwise limit access to vital information, i.e., information publicly available in English as to when, where, or how to access benefits or services from [any Justice Department office or agency]."

Such a requirement covers considerable ground, since a lack of English proficiency is precisely a barrier to accessing information in an English-speaking county. (So too is a lack of Spanish proficiency a barrier to accessing vital information in Mexico. A lack of proficiency in Italian is a barrier in Rome. Life is that way on planet Earth.)

This "barrier" will fall, thanks to Bill Lann Lee, Bill Clinton's recess appointment as the Justice Department's Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights (in defiance of both the Senate and the Constitution).

Those who are upset by appliance instructions in three languages will love the new documents they receive from Justice Department agencies: "Where documents are available in languages other than English, the English version will include a notice of such availability translated into every language in which the document is available."

How many languages are being talked about? A minimum of five:

Complaint Forms. All complaint and Privacy Act release forms published by [the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division] for distribution to individuals for the purpose of soliciting information about or allegations of possible violations of federal civil rights statutes will, at a minimum, be translated into any of the five most common languages spoken in the United States…. Based on the 1990 census, these languages would include Spanish and Chinese.

However, the possibility exists of documents in at least 15 languages:

In addition, the Division will evaluate the feasibility of translating complaint forms into any of the 15 most commonly spoken non-English languages in the United States…. Based on the 1990 census, this would include (in addition to Spanish and Chinese) Korean, Vietnamese, and Russian.

Or even 30 different tongues:

Outreach Materials. All written materials…that are designed to explain individual rights, complaint procedures, or other information vital to understanding and exercising federally protected rights, will, at a minimum, be translated into any of the ten most common non-English languages spoken in the United States…. Based on the 1990 census, [this would] include Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. In addition, the Division will evaluate the feasibility of applying the…translation standard to the thirty most commonly spoken non-English languages in the United States based on current census data.

This DOJ document boasts that: "Several outreach brochures are already translated into Spanish and one targeted to potential victims of national origin discrimination is scheduled for translation into 12 languages other than English."

Documents are merely the beginning. A visit to your local government office will soon feel like a visit to the embassy of a foreign county or a border outpost station in Europe, since all signs will soon be in at least three languages:

Where signage within a publicly-accessible duty station or facility maintained or administered by a component (other than a point of entry into the United States) is provided in English, it will also be provided, at a minimum and as soon as reasonably practical, in the two most common non-English languages spoken in the area served by the duty station or facility where, based on available data, more than 25% of the people within that language group speak English less than well.

A footnote continues: "'Available data' includes but is not limited to language and demographic census information pertaining to the area or region served."

The signs and the documents in a multitude of foreign tongues includes the Internet. Those who visit the United Nations website are given a choice of six languages in which to proceed . Thanks to this DOJ plan, you will soon be able to enjoy your choice of languages on Justice Department web sites as well:

Where documents are available for viewing or downloading through a component webpage in languages other than English, a tag indicating such availability in each of the languages will be included on each webpage.

Individuals who look like they are LEP — people like Linda Chavez for example — can expect to be greeted in Spanish even if they speak nothing but English and their families have been part of the United States for generations:

Finally, regardless of the form used to file a complaint, the Division will respond to the complainant in the appropriate language other than English where Division officials have a reason to believe that the complainant is an LEP [Limited English Proficient] person.

The DOJ plan also lays the groundwork for new debates in America's federal courts:

[T]here may be situations where a component's own interests justify the provision of an interpreter regardless of whether the LEP individual also provides his or her own interpreter. For example, where precise, complete and accurate translations of information and/or testimony are critical for law enforcement, adjudicatory or legal reasons, a component might decide to provide its own, independent interpreter.

Just think — dueling interpreters in a case filed by an FBI agent. This not an academic question. In the trial of two Libyans accused of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet, the defense attorneys have argued that their clients are the victims of "poor translation." While the trial proceedings, conducted in English, were translated into Arabic, the translation was not verbatim but rather an interprtation.

The most fascinating aspect of this document is that it suggests that the Clinton Justice Department consulted among itself on this matter and invited only extreme anti-English groups to make comments prior to the issuance of this astounding document:

[The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division] sponsored a Stakeholder Conference held on November 14, 2000, in Washington, D.C. At that conference, . . . representatives of national and regional advocacy organizations representing LEP populations offered their views on the implementation of Executive Order 13166.

Invitations to confer with Justice Department officials never reached groups with a pro-assimilation stance — groups like English First for example. English remains the language of opportunity in this country and LEP people know that even if the government doesn't. Perhaps our invitation was lost in the mail.

This DOJ program for multiple-language services is untouched by the Bush Administration's 60-day freeze on Clinton's federal regulations. The Bush administration would do well to deep six Executive Order 13166 and the Justice Departmental Implementation Plan it has produced long before the cooling-off period has passed.