NEW YORK: Latinos ‘second-class citizens’

More than two years later, as the US President battles with Congress over funding for a border wall to stem the tide of immigrants from Central America, disturbing incidents linked to the use of Spanish are on the rise.

In May, a New York lawyer went off on employees in a Manhattan store who were speaking Spanish, threatening to call immigration authorities.

That same month, two American women were arrested by border patrol agents for speaking Spanish to each other.

The acts of intolerance are evidence of the country’s increasing political polarization, even though the language is more and more commonplace in American life.

More than 41 million people living in the US claim Spanish as their mother tongue. Hispanics are now the country’s main minority group, at 17 percent of the population, according to the Pew Research Center.

Worryingly, a study from the center published in October revealed that about 40 percent of Latinos said they had been harassed over the last 12 months because of their background, including speaking Spanish in public.

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Since Trump was elected in November 2016, “we are seeing more employees calling saying, ‘Hey, I’ve been told to speak English only,’” says Christopher Ho, a lawyer for Legal Aid at Work in San Francisco.

The association provides legal assistance to workers and a toll-free number where Latinos can file complaints about language-based discrimination.

On social media, it’s not hard to find examples of people behaving badly when faced with Spanish speakers.

AFP

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