Considering that our government provides multiple outlets for non-English speaking citizens to become incorporated into our society (i.e. multilingual ballots in elections, due-process speech rights granted through the 14th Amendment, up-and-coming ESL classes in underdeveloped areas, etc.), I feel as though that people entering the U.S. shouldn't be required to even speak a lick of basic English. We don't have a national language, so there's no reason for anyone to be required to have basic English skills. If anything, we need to step our game up as a nation to help others learn English if they want to. We spend too much time demonizing immigrants in this country and don't do enough to support them. In countries like Sweden, there are government-funded education outreaches that serve to teach the native language to new immigrants. When huge amounts of Americans in both rural and urban areas fail to meet literacy requirements, how can we expect immigrants to be at a glorified communication standard (although most can meet the spoken standard, the written standard is way too high)? Our infrastructure is crumbling for multiple reasons because we don't invest in education: not only do we fail new citizens/resident aliens, we see counties upon counties that have high levels of children and adults who can't comprehend basic children's literature. Currently, 13.7% of families in my county don't speak English at home and of the families that speak English at home, only 60% of the children were assessed and deemed "capable of understanding third grade English." As my county is mostly populated by college students who are also integrated into this survey, it makes those huge numbers like 60% skyrocket even higher when our statistics aren't taken into account. It completely baffles me that we spend so much time debating budgets that slash education when it's clear that we need to step up our game when it comes to community essentials like basic literacy.