ProEnglish

The group was founded in 1994 as English Language Advocates. The group was established by John Tanton, a leading figure in the anti-immigration movement, along with several of his associates from the organization U.S. English, from which Tanton had resigned after a controversy over racially-charged memos that he had written. As of 2015, ProEnglish "is one of the few remaining groups in Tanton's network in which he remains actively involved." Dr. Tanton died in July 2019. The group was originally based in Arlington, Virginia, Its headquarters are now located in Washington, D.C. Later, Rosalie Pedalino Porter became chair of the group. The group's former executive directors are K.C. McAlpin In 2016, Sam Pimm, former executive director of Young Americans for Freedom and former executive director of a pro-Ben Carson super PAC, became executive director of the group. Subsequently, Stephen D. Guschov, a lawyer who formerly worked at Liberty Counsel, became executive director of the group. ==Beliefs and activities==

ProEnglish has been a major part of the "English-as-official-language movement." The group also has opposed comprehensive immigration reform. The chief purpose of the organization at the time of its founding was to defend the Arizona "Official English" ballot initiative, which was adopted in 1988, overturned by the Arizona Supreme Court in 1998, and re-enacted in revised form by Arizona voters in 2006. In addition to seeking the enactment of laws and policies declaring English to be the official language, ProEnglish "seeks to end bilingual education, repeal federal mandates for the translation of government documents and voting ballots in languages other than English." The Anti-Defamation League wrote in 2014 that the group had a "nativist agenda and xenophobic origins and ties." The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups in the United States, designated the group as a hate group in its 2014, 2015, and 2016 annual reports. ProEnglish was a major backer of the unsuccessful 2009 Nashville Charter Amendment 1, a local "English First" ballot referendum in Nashville, Tennessee, which would have generally required government communication and publications to be printed in English only. ProEnglish donated $82,500, about 92% of the total amount raised by the referendum's supporters. In EEOC v. Kidmans (2005), ProEnglish helped fund the litigation costs of a small drive-in restaurant in Page, Arizona, that was sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after it refused to retract an English-on-the-job rule. The restaurant said that the rule was adopted to stop "trash talking" in the Navajo language among employees, most of whom are Navajo. The EEOC and the restaurant owners ultimately negotiated a settlement, in which the employers "may require employees to speak English while dealing with the public, but not at other times." ==See also==