Honesty Second

In the meantime, all that’s really clear is that Crafton’s resurrection of the controversial bill—which, if passed, will no doubt carry a significant fiscal note, as it will cost Metro potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend—has marshaled opposition far and wide who justifiably see the council member’s effort as nothing short of a mean-spirited effort to punish and alienate immigrants, particularly Hispanics.

Vanderbilt sociologist Katherine Donato, for example, points to a 2004 Pew Hispanic Center survey, which states that “the view that immigrants have to learn English is held by a majority of Latinos, regardless of how much money they make or their level of education.”

“These statistics show that many immigrants in Tennessee already know and speak English,” says Donato. “Given that one in five foreign-born persons in Tennessee already only speak English, and of those remaining, the majority speak English well or very well, I cannot understand why anyone would support an English-only referendum.”

U.S.-born Mexican-American attorney Gregg Ramos says that Nashville has “somehow managed to survive over 200 years” without such a law. “We will come together to show that there are many other humane, respectful, dignified and truly Christian ways to assist our immigrant population in the integration process. Mr. Crafton’s divisive and ultimately ineffective law, on the other hand, will only serve to polarize our community. It will accomplish nothing tangible.”

Crafton implausibly insists that he’s only trying to be patriotic, that his ballot measure would, “if nothing else,” fight “stereotypes.”