No language requirement is imposed on a citizen who is born in the US. Some US-born citizens grow up speaking Spanish.  Ballots are printed in Spanish to facilitate their right to vote.  This isn't a bad thing.

I did not say that there is a requirement for citizens born in the USA to speak English.

But if it is a  requirement to speak English to become a citizen, then that is needed to perform the duties and rights of a citizen.

If they have not prepared themselves to perform their duties, they should not have the "rights."

TChris, what you seem to be saying is that it is acceptable to have ghettos where the customs and laws that exist are based on the customs and laws that exist in the native lands of the inhabitants of the ghettos. Some of which are actually second generation "citizens."

This a formula for disaster. See France and other members of the EU with their Moslem ghettos and you will have a very accurate view of what we face in the not to distant future.

Roy - The fact is that an immigrant is not a citizen. Read the definition.

DA - Since my crystal ball is currently under repair I have no way of knowing if the letter was meant to deceive.

Neither do you.

Sailor - You are wrong as usual. I am happy to point put what the words were, and what the words mean. Something that you, I believe, a person born in the US seem to have difficulty with.

Sailor - The fact that a large portion of our population may not understand your examples is testimony to the failure of our education system.

Fixing that problem would also fix the problem you refer.

I gotta say though, I can't believe any politician would knowingly put out such a letter that clearly contains such a non-truth on such an inflammatory topic as this, as it would obviously be found out and engender huge negative press.

Which is exactly what happened.

Whether the word "illegal" next to "immigrant" was inadvertently left out, or Nguyen didn't see the final version before it was sent out, or something else, I don't know. Something wacky happened.

No way is any pol stupid enough to knowingly send such a letter.

That was a heartfelt apology. Just beautiful. Brings me to tears...

Barbara Coe, founder of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, said today she met with state investigators and gave them copies of her group's letterhead, which she said differs substantially from the one used on the allegedly phony mailer.

The bulk mail permit used to send out the letter was sent by a Huntington Beach-based company named Mailing Pros. Nguyen's campaign used the company for five different mailers this year...Christopher West, who owns the company...

...declined to discuss details of his talk with the agents but said Nguyen was not the person he dealt with. He would not identify the person.

"The only thing I can say is that the client involved in this is a one-shot customer," Christopher West said. "I haven't seen the person before, and I guess it's unlikely I will see them again."
 

And last time I checked, it is illegal for illegal immigrants to vote...

I went  and voted today..and discovered that they had ballots available in Spainish? Why? To become a citizen you must be able to speak english.

If that shounds blunt, so be it.

It says that illegal immigrants are breaking the law if they vote. That is true.

It also says that immigrants are breaking the law if they vote.

immigrant: one that immigrates: as a : a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence

citizen: an inhabitant of a city or town; especially : one entitled to the rights and privileges of a freeman
2 a : a member of a state b : a native or naturalized person who owes allegiance to a government and is entitled to protection from it

Now, understanding that an immigrant is not a citizen, but a person in the US on a green card or some type of visa, it is still correct to say that they will be breaking the law if they vote.

It does not say "naturalized citizens."

Applicants for naturalization must be able to read, write, speak, and understand words in ordinary usage in the English language. Applicants exempt from this requirement are those who on the date of filing:

have been residing in the United States subsequent to a lawful admission for permanent residence for at least 15 years and are over 55 years of age;

have been residing in the United States subsequent to a lawful admission for permanent residence for at least 20 years and are over 50 years of age; or

have a medically determinable physical or mental impairment, where the impairment affects the applicant's ability to learn English.

Here is a random sampling of the wording of a ballot initiave in CA this year:

8879.37. All money derived from premium and accrued interest on
bonds sold pursuant to this chapter shall be transferred to the General
Fund as a credit to expenditures for bond interest.

So ppj is happy disenfranchising citizens or their right to vote even tho the law disagrees with him.

Funny, though, that so many here believe the GOP on this issue, but scream "lies!" at them on so many others. Anyway...

The fact that it was a translation into a different language gives some credence (but certainly no excuse) to an "oops" defense, although there has been no such "oops" claim thus far.

I still have a hard time believing that anyone would purposely do this because such an obvious untruth mailed to 14,000 people on such a contentious issue would so obviously be discovered and end up on the news - such that its actual effect would be the polar opposite of its intention - regardless of whether or not it was traceable back to the actual person responsible for sending it.

I have a hard time believing that anyone could be such a complete dumba$$.

Tan D. Nguyen is far from your typical candidate. Two years ago, the Vietnamese immigrant ran as a Democrat in Rep. Dana Rohrabacher's heavily Republican coastal district and failed to make it out of the primary. Then he changed his affiliation to Republican and declared his bid to upset Sanchez.

Yet another shining example of ppj's confusion. Got links to either of your mutually exclusive bogus claims?

ppj:
"DA - Since my crystal ball is currently under repair I have no way of knowing if the letter was meant to deceive."
Gee, it was only sent to Dem immigrants, even the rethug party denounced it, a staffer was fired for it and there's an investigation of it. I don't need a crystal ball to see it was meant to decieve.

"I acknowledge that somebody connected with the campaign did draft it," said Braniff, adding that the translation of the text had altered its original intent to address only people who were not citizens and thus ineligible to vote.

Braniff said an initial English-language draft of the mailer made specific references to illegal immigrants and green card holders. The Spanish mailer used the word emigrado, which is defined as someone living outside his or her country, according to the Real Academia Española.

Braniff claimed that the word has been incorrectly translated as "immigrant" by the public.

So they're claiming a double "oops." Bad translation from English to Spanish, and then another bad translation from Spanish back to English which compounds the error on such a controversial issue.

Congressional candidate Tan Nguyen personally bought the list of voters to whom a racially charged letter was mailed, warning that immigrants could be jailed or deported for voting, according to the president of the company that sold the list and sources familiar with the still-unfolding investigation.

Nguyen requested information on registered Democrats in the central Orange County Congressional district with Spanish surnames who were born outside the United States, according to people familiar with a state investigation into the letter.
[...]
The letter went on to falsely claim that the state had developed a tracking system that would allow the names of Latino voters to be given to anti-immigrant groups.