The Linguistic Conflict in the United States

With the increasing amounts of immigrants coming to the United States, the linguistic conflict definitely begins to play a very large role. The real question is: Should immigrants be required to learn the English language while they are living in the United States?
An article in the Washington Post made a great point: immigrant English proficiency is associated with higher earnings and therefore higher tax payments, lower use of welfare programs and increased educational and economic improvement. All of these things would positively affect the United States therefore one could say that English instruction for immigrants could be seen as an investment.
When immigrants are deficient in English, the time it takes for them to get settled and integrated and accustomed to life in America increases. Instead of just focusing on trying to start a new life in a new place, they are also faced with the burden of trying to learn English.
I do agree that immigrants should try and learn English, not for the sake of American citizens already living here in the United States, bur for themselves so that they are able to better succeed. I was talking to a friend about this topic and she thinks that immigrants need to know English basically in order to survive here in American and to build a good life for themselves. Although I think that immigrants should learn English, I don’t think that its something that should be required of anyone. Requiring someone to speak a certain language seems to go against some of the foundations of which America was built on. People should be able to speak the language they choose but it would probably benefit someone living here to speak English.
I do not think that we can expect immigrants to learn English without giving them a means to do so. Immigrants coming to this country already do not have much money and most are struggling to build a life here. Most immigrants probably do not have the means to pay for English classes. I think that the citizens of American should step up and try to help the immigrants who come to this country and who work hard to contribute. I used to volunteer at a school here in Madison that was composed of predominantly of Latino families. Most of the students that attended the school spoke English but their parents did not. Volunteers set up and ran English classes for these parents at night after school and other volunteers helped their children with homework. Like most immigrants, these parents wanted to learn English and until this program was started, they were unable. I know it is difficult to find volunteers to create and run this type of a program but it would be a way to help immigrants learn English without a lot of Federal funding.
As a senior graduating in nursing, I know I am going to have many patients that don’t speak English. I have taken Spanish in college and want to continue taking Spanish throughout my career so that I can better care for my patients. It is not just up to the immigrants to learn English. We Americans, who have the means to help and learn other languages, need to step up as well.