I’m not asking rhetorically. I really want to know. In major cities (or in places where there are high immigrant populations), are there free or low-cost English classes? Does the INS do stings via English classes (I once had an immigrants rights advocate tell me that even legal immigrants are reluctant to draw attention to themselves, and signing up for a class would draw attention to himself)?
In the Chicago area there are all sorts of free and low-cost English classes for immigrants, at community colleges, immigrant service nonprofits, churches, etc. In my entire career, I’ve never once heard of Homeland Security raiding an English class. It would be ridiculous - all sorts of people who are in the U.S. legally have a less than perfect command of English.
Eva Luna, Immigration Paralegal
Former refugee job counselor
Former Spanish interpreter, Office of the Immigration Judge
Aiding the Huddled Masses Since 1990
My wife is foreign-born and has been taking English classes for as long as she’s been in this country. She’s taken classes from Adult Education departments, churches, and community colleges. Other than the community college classes, most of the classes have been free, or so cheap as to not matter.
I THOUGHT your question was going to be “how difficult is it for a foreigner to learn English”. If you take my wife as an example, the answer would be “very.”
One cute example: I was helping her correct some homework and I picked up one piece of paper. She said, “not that. It’s storm head.”
:dubious:
… “storm head” … “storm head” …
:smack: brain storm!
J.
The LA area has lots of ESL classes for nothing or next-to-nothing as well. Well-advertised, too.
I don’t know why legal immigrants (I happen to be one) should be overly worried about drawing attention to themselves. The USCIS has an inch-thick file on every legal immigrant, and while they’re as annoying, slow and cumbersome as a bureaucracy could ever hope to get, they do tend to respect their own decisions and documentation. IOW, if you’re in good standing and you flash your work permit/green card at them, they’ll stop bothering you. I guess I can understand why people who’ve been through the paper mill wouldn’t want to be bothered by them ever again, though.