Quote Originally Posted by Swink View Post
What I'd do is give people every opportunity to learn. Most will, or at least their kids will. They'll need the language to survive. If they can't survive without it, why worry.
The people have every opportunity to learn, and most learn just enough to survive and no more. They can survive without knowing much though because they have their own network of like-cultured and like-tongued friends, family, and coworkers.

If the current laws that are already in place were actually enforced, legal immigrants would have to start working with other English speakers (because the illegal immigrants would be gone) and then they would have to learn more English just to get by, as you say.

The goal is to enforce the law and Oklahoma passed a law last year designed to give law enforcement more tools to work with in order to enforce the law. Even though immigration law itself did not change at all, many illegal immigrants have moved and are still moving (many moved even before the law went into effect.) Shady businesses whined and complained but now some of them have had to start hiring legal workers and/or pack up and move out. In Oklahoma, it is starting to pay for immigrants to be legal. I don't know if that's how it is elsewhere (I suspect not) but I'm glad some legislators around here are actually directing policy and passing laws according to the will of the voters