María Elvira Salazar: “I thank Senator Reid and state his eloquence today, in terms of pointing out issues and concerns with respect to the…”

“I thank Senator Reid and state his eloquence today, in terms of pointing out issues and concerns with respect to the Inhofe amendment, is very much appreciated. I want to reiterate to my colleagues on the floor of the Senate today that I am asking for your support for an amendment that will unify America, that will say that English is in fact the language of the land and that we will work to make sure English is the common language of America. I am also here to ask my colleagues to vote against the amendment of Senator Inhofe because I am concerned about the unintended consequences that will flow from the proposal which Senator Inhofe has offered. Let me say there can be no doubt at all that English is, in fact, the unifying language of America. In my own State of Colorado, as I look at some of the statistics on the number of people who are waiting in long lines to learn English, it is an incredibly long line. In the five- county Denver-Metro area, adult ESL programs working with the Department of Education have 5,000 people enrolled in those programs. They have a waiting list that is up to 2 months, because there are so many people in the Denver metropolitan area who want to learn English. This debate is not about the endangerment of English in America today. People in America understand that we conduct our business in English, that we are conducting our business in the Senate today in English.…”