Tom Tancredo: “But there is one thing that is absolutely imperative, it seems to me, in a situation like that. That is to have a common…”

“But there is one thing that is absolutely imperative, it seems to me, in a situation like that. That is to have a common language, so that we can in fact communicate with each other about the things that are important. When we see that, along with massive immigration from countries that do not speak English, English is not the primary language, when we see the pressure that places on us here to expand the number of languages that we teach in schools, let me tell the gentleman an interesting and almost I think incredible fact. Not too long ago, I read that a gentleman who could not speak English was operating a nail gun and, because of whatever reason, he ended up shooting himself in the leg with this nail gun. The gentleman could not speak English. He therefore determined, or I am sure it was some lawyer who determined this for him, that his best thing to do was to sue the manufacturer of the nail gun because the directions and the warnings were not printed in more languages than English, in his particular language. There are places around the country where police have to go on calls and have to take with them linguists, people who will speak a variety of languages, when they get to the door.”