On March 1, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating English as the official language of the U.S.. As a largely symbolic action, the order will not require any major changes to federal programs.

Long connected to English-only and anti-bilingual education movements, the order is a victory for the movement, aiming to restrict immigration in the U.S.. Despite the federal action, 30 states have already declared English their official language.

Furthermore, the executive order goes back on a Clinton-era regulation encouraging language assistance to non-English speakers, requiring recipients of federal funding to do so. It does, however, allow currently existing agencies to keep current policies, provide documents and services in other languages. It is merely a change of policy for future agencies and those seeking bilingual services. 

Despite more than three-quarters of Americans speaking only English at home in the first place, 42 million Americans speak Spanish and 3 million speak Mandarin.