One of the most important problems with the influx of illegal aliens to America and those illegal aliens who are already here is the inability of these immigrants to speak and to read English.  The hypocrisy of the left regarding the vital importance of recognizing English as the official language of our nation and requiring all who remain here permanently to be fluent in English is breathtaking.

Consider the Democrat floor leaders in the House and the Senate or the new DNC chair.  Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are the descendants of poor Italian and Jewish immigrant families, and Thomas Perez is the child of first-generation Dominicans.  None of these three could have risen out of poverty and into power without ruthlessly pursuing English in place of Italian or Yiddish or Spanish.

The first vital step in climbing the ladder of the American Dream was learning to speak fluently the language of the new homeland.  "Speak English, Ma!" is something young Italians and Jews and all the other myriad immigrant groups from Europe grasped firmly and pursued fast. 

Proficiency in English meant that the doors of education, trade, commerce, law, entertainment, and politics were opened up to these immigrants' children.   While it was not uncommon for these immigrants' children to retain knowledge of the language of their parents, it was knowledge and skill in English that allowed immigrants to rise in one generation from the destitution of slums to the heights of professional success.

Pelosi and Schumer ought to be telling Hispanics to stop listening to Spanish television and radio and to stop demanding bilingualism (linguistic ghettoes).  Those two ought to scold Hispanics for not doing what Pelosi's and Schumer's own parents and grandparents did and master English.  "Speak English, Ma!" was the demand made by children to those whom they truly loved and wished well.  These immigrants' parents reciprocated this love by demanding that their children get good grades in public schools, in which only English was used. 

What leftists grasp, of course, is that those groups who cannot understand and communicate in English are at the mercy of their "protectors" (slave owners) who translate for them, and leftists always twist that translation for their own political advantage.  The left always delights in crippling people with welfare or invented grievances or other crutches dependent upon leftists doling out scraps in exchange for votes.

There is another reason why illegal aliens ought specifically to become proficient in English.  The global language is English, spoken increasingly as the universal language of commerce and communication.  One third of the planet's GDP comes from the four largest English-speaking democracies, which are four of the twelve largest economies in the world.  

English is also the common language in multi-language nations like India, and it is spoken and understood by most of the people in nations as far-flung as the Philippines, Ireland, Jamaica, Denmark, Nigeria, Singapore, and Israel.  One out of every five people in the world speaks English, and that includes every inhabited continent. 

English also is the most common language of cyberspace, and it is estimated that half of the text on the internet is in English.  Most scientific journals are in English.  Throughout the world, proficiency in English has a clear and direct connection to income and professional success.  Only leftists, who love the practical helplessness of voting herds, can pretend that their anti-English bias is out of regard for those these leftists profess to care about.

Proficiency in English is vastly more important that graduating from high school or earning a worthless, albeit very expensive, degree from college.  American history is full of great men who rose to the pinnacle of success in myriad fields because of their ability to read, to write, and to speak English. 

Moreover, illegal aliens sent back to their country of origin can take with them a command of English that will open doors for them in their native land that will create powerful incentives to stay home and not to enter America illegally.  They would, indeed, enrich their home countries without coming illegally into America – surely the best answer possible.

Leftists want not just these folks deprived of the blessing of English proficiency.  Of course, the left encourages blacks to reject good English as "white" and demands that Asian immigrants be "accommodated" with everything from ballots to school books in alien script. 

"Speak English, Ma!" is what the Pelosi and Schumer and Perez family children would, out of love, have told their mothers.  If they truly cared about those voting groups they profess to care about, they would insist that these folks too speak and master English.