But what about Schwarzenegger's affiliation with U.S. English? Some stories have reported, accurately, that I resigned as president of the organization when I discovered that the founder of the group had once circulated a private memorandum that was both anti-Hispanic and anti-Catholic. The memo alleged that the influx of so many Catholic immigrants from Latin America and Asia was going to alter the demographics of the country because of their higher birthrates, so that, in his words, "For the first time in history those of us with our pants up will be caught by those with their pants down." A number of prominent members of the board of advisors resigned when I did, but Schwarzenegger apparently did not step down.
So does that mean Schwarzenegger agreed with the memo or supported its views? I highly doubt it -- my guess is he was oblivious to the controversy. In fact, the man who wrote the memo, John Tanton, resigned a few days after I did. In short order, so did the board of directors -- who were the actual policymakers for the group, as opposed to the honorary advisory board on which Schwarzenegger sits. None of the original founders, directors or staff is even associated with U.S. English today.
Supporting English as the national language, and encouraging immigrants to learn English, isn't anti-Hispanic or anti-immigrant. The only reason the United States has successfully integrated so many millions of immigrants over the last 150 years is precisely because we have a common language and culture. Poles, Greeks, Italians, Jews and others learned English and came to think of themselves as Americans, which allowed them to quickly move into the cultural and economic mainstream.
The key to success for today's Hispanic immigrants is to follow the same path. Ironically, the biggest impediment to this natural process is government policy, which promotes Spanish-language instead of English instruction for Hispanic children and Spanish-language services for adults. As governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger could help turn around these policies and make the American Dream a reality for California Hispanics.