SPRINGFIELD, Va., Dec. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- English First Political Victory Fund today endorsed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for President of the United States.
"Mitt Romney has been a veritable Rock of Gibraltar on official English," said Jim Boulet, Jr., Executive Director of English First Political Victory Fund.
"In 1971, Massachusetts became the first state to make bilingual education mandatory. Yet when Romney ran for governor of Massachusetts in 2002, he courageously endorsed a referendum calling for repeal of that failed policy. Both Romney and the children of Massachusetts won that year," Boulet said.
A former Massachusetts bilingual education teacher, Dr. Rosalie Porter, said at the time, "the cities with the heaviest enrollments of Latino children, the families that have had experience with bilingual programs, voted FOR the initiative -- Boston, Holyoke, Springfield, Lawrence, Lowell."
According to English First PVF records, Romney's pro-English record stands in sharp contrast to those of his major Republican opponents:
Senator John McCain told the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC):"We don't need laws that cause any American to believe we scorn their contributions to our culture" (Human Events, March 5, 1999).
Mayor Rudy Giuliani opposed English as an official language, saying "there's no reason to pass a bill like this except, maybe, to exclude people, insult people or offend people" (The New York Times, August 14, 1996).
"Governor Mike Huckabee failed to enforce federal immigration laws, let alone Arkansas' official English law," Boulet said.
English First Political Victory Fund