Chapter 2: Spinning Trump’s Language: Cracking the Code and Transforming Identities and Ideologies

In the late nineties, businessman Ron Unz led a movement to eliminate bilingual education that provided some form of home language support for emergent bilinguals throughout the United States. (Ryan, 2002). Antiimmigrant sentiments and backlash politics led to a number of propositions being passed that severely hampered bilingual education in several states (e.g., Arizona, California, and Massachusetts). In some states, like Colorado, this movement was resisted and voters successfully prevented such measures from carrying the weight of law. However, the movement was particularly successful in other states, like Arizona and California, with the largest immigrant, bilingual population (mostly Spanish-speaking Latino/ as). In 1998, California voters elected to restrict and effectively eliminate bilingual education across the state only to vote it back almost 20 years later through Proposition 58, which has the potential to transform the schooling experiences and educational potential of emergent bilingual students.