WASHINGTON (Reuters)-US President Donald Trump will sign a decree to make the country’s official language for the first time in history, a White House authority said Friday.
She gave no deadlines for the edition of the decree, which was initially revealed by The Wall Street Journal.
The US has never had an official language for the whole country, but some states choose their language.
Trump, a Republican, has opposed illegal immigration a mark of his two terms in the White House and encourages the use of English in public life.
During his first presidential campaign, Trump scolded his then rival Jeb Bush for using another language in the race. He said at a news conference in New York in 2015: “We are a nation that speaks English.”
Trump’s decree will terminate a federal requirement introduced by Democratic President Bill Clinton that agencies and other federal entities provide linguistic assistance to non -English speaking, Wall Street Journal said.
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There are 32 states in the US that adopted English as an official language, according to Proenglish, a group that advocates the language as the main one.
The issue is controversial in certain states, including Texas, where the use of Spanish in public life has generated controversy over the years.
A state senator of Texas in 2011 required that an English immigrant rights activist, not his native Spaniard, in a legislative audience.
