On March 1, President Donald Trump signed an order designating English as “the official language of the United States.”
The executive order does not exempt U.S. territories or the District of Columbia. Like all federal laws, regulations and related policies, the executive order applies to the entire nation. Including Puerto Rico.
The order does not mandate any proactive reforms to federal programs or services, but it does remove the obligation to assist a citizen who is not fluent in English and was met with concern among advocacy groups stateside.
In Puerto Rico, since Spanish is used so widely, the disenfranchisement of any community based on the new order is not a credible threat at this time, and the Trump announcement appears to be a relic of the floundering “English only” movement launched in the 1980s in a less diverse America in which bilingualism was not as prized as it is today.
In the roughly three weeks since the order was issued, no related incidents or hardships have been reported in Puerto Rico, and Puerto Ricans appear to have moved on with their lives.
The Impact of Statehood
“Official language” designations are generally determined on the state level. According to a New York Times analysis, more than thirty states have already designated English as their official language.
Most – but not all – states have identified English as their official language. Some states, including California, have designated English as the only official language of the state despite excessive use of other languages by its residents. Alaska, Oklahoma, and Hawaii all declared English and one or more indigenous languages their official languages. Louisiana has not declared an official language, but says that “French and English both have legal status.”
Puerto Rico claims both English and Spanish as official languages. While the territory has historically gone back and forth between English and Spanish as the official language, most of the controversy over the question has centered on language choice in schools. Both languages have been official since 1993.
In past decades, and especially when the “English only” movement was in its heyday, one argument used against statehood was that statehood would leave Puerto Rico vulnerable to “English only” policies. The new order demonstrates that statehood would leave Puerto Rico no more vulnerable to “English only” initiatives than it is today.
In fact, statehood would help provide Puerto Rico with authority that the U.S. territory does not have today.
Under the 10th amendment, anything not covered by the U.S. Constitution is up to the states to decide. (“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”) Statehood would grant Puerto Rico explicit constitutional power to make its own laws and take actions such as to declaring an official language.
Today Puerto Rico is not included in the tenth amendment. It is covered instead by Article IV of the U.S. Constitution, the territorial clause (“The Congress shall have the power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States.”)
For now, the official announcement does not appear to be having a tangible impact in Puerto Rico. There are no efforts to take Spanish off any official documents. The announcement of the new order may have been met with annoyance and even disdain, but after the initial shock, life appears to have continued as normal.
Threats to Annex Puerto Rico?
Criticism of statehood – often coming from well meaning people living stateside – sometimes includes the admonition that Puerto Rico should not be “annexed” by the United States. In light of how the recent executive order fully applies to Puerto Rico, it appears that, as a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico has already been “annexed.”
The “annexation” of Puerto Rico happened generations ago, in 1898, after Puerto Rico ended its status as a colony of Spain and became instead a colony of the U.S. after the Spanish American War, and was further reinforced in 1917 upon the granting of U.S. citizenship by birth to the people of Puerto Rico.
The unfinished business of Puerto Rican “annexation” to the United States involves instead either granting equal rights to all U.S. citizens or breaking the U.S.-Puerto Rico connection altogether through independence. Fearmongering about the “annexation” of Puerto Rico under statehood has lost its luster. As a U.S. territory, the issue is moot.
What the executive order says
What next? Well, it looks like nothing. The order states that nothing in it “requires or directs any change in the services provided by any agency. Agency heads should make decisions as they deem necessary to fulfill their respective agencies’ mission and efficiently provide Government services to the American people. Agency heads are not required to amend, remove, or otherwise stop production of documents, products, or other services prepared or offered in languages other than English.”
In other words, school can still be taught in Spanish. Instruction forms at U.S. agencies can remain in Spanish. Litigation in U.S. federal courts? Well, that will remain in English. It’s already in English. In other words, nothing has changed on a practical level.
The executive order encourages U.S. newcomers to learn English, saying, “In welcoming new Americans, a policy of encouraging the learning and adoption of our national language will make the United States a shared home and empower new citizens to achieve the American dream. Speaking English not only opens doors economically, but it helps newcomers engage in their communities, participate in national traditions, and give back to our society. This order recognizes and celebrates the long tradition of multilingual American citizens who have learned English and passed it to their children for generations to come.”
The Real Threat to Puerto Rican Spanish
As previously reported in the Puerto Rico Report, although the possibility of losing the Spanish language is often used as an argument against statehood for Puerto Rico, less attention has been paid to the loss of Spanish within the Puerto Rican diaspora, which is occurring now as Puerto Ricans move stateside and subsequent generations remain there.
As pointed out by The Atlantic, the loss of a language by a once-proficient speaker and subsequent generations is quite common. Research shows that it occurs rapidly. A heritage language often becomes all but extinct by a family’s third generation.
Puerto Rico is still primarily a Spanish-speaking U.S. territory. Estimates suggest that about 20% of people living in Puerto Rico are fully bilingual in Spanish and English, with younger people being more likely to feel comfortable in English. More than 95% of the population speaks Spanish.
However, more people of Puerto Rican heritage now live in the states than on the Island. The diaspora is now some 5.8 million strong, while just about 3.1 million live in Puerto Rico. Residents of Puerto Rico are not forced to move to states. Unlike other historic diasporas, Puerto Ricans are not fleeing persecution. The most common reasons given for the move are economic: people leave Puerto Rico for a state because they need health care, educational support, or career opportunities that just aren’t available to them in the territory.
Do the people who have left Puerto Rico for the states still speak Spanish? According to the Pew Research Center, 63% speak Spanish at home, but only 39% of Puerto Ricans who were born in a state do so. Related data shows a clear loss of the Spanish language between people living on the Island and people living in a state.
At the end of the day, Puerto Rico’s current territory status may be more of a threat to Spanish fluency among Puerto Ricans than statehood. U.S. Census data confirm that Spanish use in the Puerto Rican community in the U.S. is on the decline, with the percentage of people of Puerto Rican origin residing in states speaking Spanish at home falling from 84.6% in 1980 to 50.9% in 2021. The children of the migrants to the states are clearly less likely to speak Spanish at home.
As a territory, Puerto Rico is continually losing residents to the states. It is a common perception that any notice of Puerto Rico becoming independent would create a tsunami of migrants to states before borders are closed shut. Current facts support a similar prediction that a free association arrangement between a foreign country of Puerto Rico and the U.S. would encourage massive migration to the scale that would leave a new nation of Puerto Rico floundering. In this way, the current territory status and possible future independence – with or without a free association arrangement – seem to be a bigger threat to Spanish language fluency among Puerto Ricans than statehood.
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