Irritated when people in America speak Spanish in public, expect others do same, and won't learn English?

• English is the official language of the United States. It is not Spanish. There are forces to try to make the U.S. bilingual. Learning more language that one is a good thing. But is the tail wagging the dog when those who won't speak the language of the country in which they live, stubbornly refuse to try to learn it, and instead try to shift the blame as though you, who speak the language of the land, don't speak THEIR language instead? And supposedly the problem is with YOU? I live on the Texas-Mexico border. My town is 91% Hispanic. It used to not be this way. Now, the first thing you hear in public is Spanish, not English. Many expect you to speak Spanish. I do. But I studied to learn both languages, even though not required to learn something other than the language of my land. By sheer numbers, I'm being told "English isn't good enough if you want to get along with us". Yet this is my land. And we are over-run with illegals who won't adapt. Would it irritate you?

• Answer:

  Illegal immigration is a huge problem. Some people try to claim that we should just open our borders completely. This is simply a bad idea. No country has ever done this, and no country ever will. If you completely open your borders, people will take advantage of your countries advantages, move money and resources out of your country, and spread the economic resources thinner amongst the people that do live there. The biggest problem, which most people fail to acknowledge, is that illegal immigration is hurting the mexican-american population more than anyone else. Because of illegal immigration, many people are beginning to view mexican-americans as a lower class. Stereotypes about mexican-americans not being able to speak english and standing outside of Home Depot. looking for work are beginning to make it more difficult for an educated mexican-american to succeed in obtaining the American Dream. Further more, many of the people that come into the united states illegal are criminals and/or drug mules. I am not claiming that all or even most of illegal immigrants are this way, but many are. A government poll indicated that 25% of U.S. prisoners are illegal immigrants. But often times, people are not arrested BECAUSE they are illegal immigrants. A friend of mine was killed by a drunk driver who had been pulled over and ticketed 4 times for drunk driving in the past. However, because he was an illegal immigrant, the process of arresting him was too complicated for the officers to want to bother with it and they only issued fines instead. It is ridiculous to give someone who is an illegal immigrant (meaning that they've already broken the law) more chances to break the law. the best thing to do is to completely re-write the american immigration policy. There are dozens of flaws in it which are keeping people out of our country who deserve to be here, and allowing people in that should never step foot in this country. We need to completely overhaul the system and then actually enforce a strict border. lastly, watch this video... it proves that our immigration policy isn't even helping anyone/the extent to which it is hurting us: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7WJeqxuOfQ