by Karen K. Narasaki

About the author: Karen K. Narasaki is the executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium.

A battered immigrant spouse is unable to get a restraining order to stop her citizen husband’s abuse because she cannot speak English.

A victim of anti-Asian violence is unable to testify against his assailants because he does not speak English.

A refugee calls 911 when her husband has a heart attack, but the operator is not permitted to instruct her in her native tongue.

These are just some of the stories you can expect to hear if English-only legislation and their thinly disguised cousins, English as the Official Language, or English as the Language of Government, become law.

Although these proposals appear to be innocuous on their face, their impact on the Asian Pacific...