With more foreign born people living in the U.S. than ever before, 22 percent of households speak a language other than English, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
The U.S. is now home to roughly 44 million immigrants, most coming from Mexico, Cuba and other Latin American countries. Stephen Guschov, executive director of the group ProEnglish, says it's to their advantage to learn English as quickly as possible.
“Someone that comes to this nation and immerses themselves in English right away is going to have better job opportunities, better money making opportunities, they're going to be able to support themselves and their family a lot better and a lot faster,” he says.
MPI also found nearly half of the foreign born ages 5 and older in the fastest growing destination states reported speaking English less than "very well.”
“If you're learning English, even at a very young age like elementary school, immersing yourself into it is going to set you up for more success academically, all through university and then professionally when you get out and start looking for a job,” says Guschov.
Harris County prints election ballots in several languages, something Guschov disagrees with. That's why his group is pushing to make English the nation's official language.
“Someone has to pay to print the ballot in all those languages where you have more pages, more printed and it's more expensive to print ballots,” he says. “Obviously taxpayers are bearing that cost.”