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The judge who ordered a Mexican immigrant to improve her English or possibly lose custody of her daughter has been disciplined by state judiciary officials.


Documents from the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary — which is charged with overseeing the conduct of the state's judges — show disciplinary action was taken against Judge Barry Tatum, but do not reveal the exact nature of the action because state law and the court's own rules forbid it.


The action against the Wilson County Juvenile Court judge stems from controversial court orders he issued requiring Hispanic mothers to learn English in child custody cases.


In one of the cases, Tatum told a teenage mother to learn English and use birth control. In a similar case, he ordered another Hispanic immigrant to learn English or face permanently losing custody of her 11-year-old daughter.


A complaint was filed with the Court of the Judiciary by Nashville resident Alex Friedman, who recently turned over documents to The Lebanon Democrat newspaper after the court rejected his request for specifics about the disciplinary action. In an eight-page explanation to the court during its investigation, Tatum referred to the unique language and cultural barriers in these two cases and said an underlying factor in the controversy was the atmosphere generated by the media.


In his response, Tatum said the ability to speak English would allow mothers to more easily take advantage of various social services. He also noted English was already the primary language of one of the children in question.

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The Judge seems absolutely reasonable to me. Why should people get indignant when it is advised that you should be proficient in the language spoken by those who surround you? Isn't this like being outraged when told not to stick your hand into a fire?

Being non-fluent in English certainly is no help to the mother, who will find her job prospects highly limited, and - depending on her level of competency - may find herself constrained to living and functioning in one of America's urban foreign enclaves, which tend to be poor and dysfunctional. The children in non-English speaking homes tend to be at tremendous disadvantage in school, since they do not readily understand the language of instruction or are substantially slower at doing so. This is a crazy situation all around!

Also: Isn't it supposed to be a condition of immigration that one is to be proficient in English?

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Not if you wade in it isn't.