I'm not trying to be sassy, but you talk about people becoming Americans whom you know, and then talk about some other, possibly known, group of immigrants that isn't. This confuses me. Are you talking about people who have immigrated as opposed to people who come here merely as students or workers on green cards?

The only languages I have ever seen besides English on government documents are Spanish (see my post to Tom -- political clout, a very American thing, has a lot to do with this) and Vietnamese, who were a special case. I understand that Tagalog, Korean, and Cambodian are on the list as well.

I'm sure there are others, at many local levels. Is each a large enough population to justify the expense?

This comes mighty close to the "English as Official Language" discussion. Since we don't even have uniform usage from region to region among native speakers, this argument has always rung hollow with me. Are we then to set up an American equivalent of the Académie Française? You know who will be in charge of that: all those left-wing academic Communist eggheads. They're the ones who majored in English.

We can establish that all original government documents will be written in English, that all government business will be transacted in English, and that translations (official ones, not the off-the-cuff 19th-century variety) will be available for citizens who require them. Non-citizens are on their own, except for documents from the folks at Immigration and Naturalization. Businesses should be free to run in whatever language or languages their owners choose.

As for the folks who think that civil and criminal law doesn't apply to them, well, we frown on that kind of thing. Our nation is made of laws -- not religion, not custom. Our laws mediate all the differences brought by religion and custom. If one accepts the law, one can be an American. If one does not, one cannot. No other litmus test applies.

Regards--
Mary Anne