Language Rights: An Integration Agenda for Immigrant Communities
By Sam Jammal and Tuyet Duong
Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) & the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC), November 2007

The rights of LEPs are recognized under core civil rights law. Language is not only a barrier
to communication, but also an identifying characteristic of an individual�s ethnicity and
national origin. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits
discrimination based on race, ancestry, national origin or ethnicity. The Supreme Court in
Lau v. Nichols affirmed a connection between discrimination based on national origin and
language rights. In support of this concept of language rights, numerous pieces of federal
legislation also address the needs of LEPs.
For more go to http://www.migrationinformation.org/integration/language_portal/files/Language_Rights_Briefing_Book.pdf