Achieving and living the American Dream requires knowing the language we use here. Immigrants who don't learn English, and even our own citizens who don't have a good grasp of the language, never reach their full potential. People who know our language are more successful, earn more income, move into better neighborhoods with better schools and make better lives for their families. Their children, in turn, are more successful and the whole country benefits.
In years past, immigrants had to learn English quickly to live and work here. There was almost nothing available to them in their own languages and certainly nothing provided by the government or most businesses. Because of the distance and cost involved in visiting their homeland, most never went "home" again. They were forced to cut all ties with their past and quickly became Americans.
It is very easy for immigrants now to keep ties with their homelands. Telephones, email and airplanes all make it easy to visit often. The Spanish speaking immigrants, especially, have little need to learn English. Businesses have made the decision to serve them in their own language because of their buying power and their sheer numbers.
Chinese is probably the only other language which has enough people here to make it fairly easy for some people to live here and not learn English. People speaking other languages have a harder time and have to learn English quicker, more like immigrants a hundred years ago had to do.
Even with the ease for many immigrants to keep their own languages, the Pew Hispanic Center says that Latino immigrants recognize the importance of learning English. 92% of Latinos believe it is