You're from Europe, land of Bunches Of Small Countries That Speak Different Languages. Yes, it's important for you to know other languages. It isn't for us. America is separated from much of the world, and of the two countries that border us, one already speaks English (except for those nutty Quebeckers :)). It's not important to be fluent in multiple languages - just the one that, up until a few years ago, virtually everyone in the country could speak and understand.

America is, and always has been, an English-speaking country. As its borders expanded and its population moved, its language and culture became the dominant one in areas it covered. Cherokee was spoken in Alabama for hundreds of years - does that mean we should print signs, documents, manuals and anything else in Cherokee? No. It means that anyone who spoke Cherokee and wished to be a functional member of American society had to buckle down and learn English (yeah, I know, they were marched off to Oklahoma, but you get the point, I hope). Why should anyone else - especially someone who's here illegally - be any different?

Let's go back and look at that word, illegally. That's the real kicker, I think. It would be one thing for millions of persons to seek legal citizenship, even though they may not speak the language that America expects them to, and eventually integrate that as part of America. Land of oppurtunity, the American dream, yada yada, I think that's great that someone can come here through the expected and lawful channels and make something of themselves where they wouldn't have had a chance in their own country. It's something else entirely to sneak into the country and expect it to bend over backwards to serve you, demanding welfare, food stamps, jobs, housing, and education all to be handed to you, and THEN to have the gall to expect the very language itself to cater to you.