Immigrants criticize English Only bill

Immigrants and their supporters staged a statehouse news conference thismorning to criticize a bill which would establish English as Iowa’s officiallanguage. Jasmin Zulic of Des Moines came to Iowafrom war-torn Bosnia. He asked legislators to allow them to love english.Alicia Claypool of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa says supporters ofEnglish-only are demogogues who are pandering to fears about immigrants.Maria Lourdes Ford called the English-only bill “ignorant.”The bill will be debated in the Iowa House this week and is likely to pass. Governor Vilsack has indicated he may veto the bill as Vilsack says it sendsthe wrong message to immigrants.