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YUMA, Ariz. (AP) - A judge ruled that a city council candidate in Arizona must be removed from the ballot due to lack of English proficiency.
The ruling on Wednesday came after the San Luis City Council approved a motion Jan. 13 asking for verification that Alejandrina Cabrera met the requirement of a state law that any person holding office in the state, a county or city must speak, write and read English.
San Luis Mayor Juan Carlos Escamilla filed a lawsuit in December asking the court to determine if Cabrera's English skills were sufficient to qualify her to seek the four-year council seat in the city's primary election.
Cabrera, who last year launched two unsuccessful attempts to recall Escamilla as mayor, was one of 10 candidates to file petitions to run for the council.
The Yuma Sun reported the removal of Cabrera from the ballot also stemmed from a Dec. 14 complaint made by former mayor Guillermina Fuentes that Cabrera isn't fluent in English.
Fuentes claimed she has acted as an interpreter for Cabrera.
Yuma County Superior Judge John Nelson ordered Cabrera's name stricken from the March ballot after a court hearing that ended Wednesday night.
Nelson's ruling was based on tests administered by a sociolinguistics expert, as well as her inability to respond to questions posed to her in English at Wednesday's hearing, the newspaper said.
Cabrera's lawyers, John Minore and John Garcia, said they're considering filing an appeal. They argued that state law doesn't set specific standards of fluency that candidates must meet.
Sociolinguistics expert William Eggington presented the court with results of three different tests he administered to Cabrera, who graduated from Kofa High School in Yuma. One measured her English-speaking skill, another was to determine if she reads the language, and the third was to assess her level of English comprehension.
Eggington's report said Cabrera's English skills don't meet the level of language proficiency needed to serve on the council.
Minore said the action against his client was politically motivated because of her efforts to recall Escamilla.
Cabrera began circulating petitions to recall the mayor in April after the council hiked utility rates and approved the layoffs of 12 city employees as part of spending cuts to balance the budget.
January 27, 2012 @ 3:15 pm
One other question would be if she was a citizen. If she was naturalized, fine. If she’s not, she had no place on the ballot to begin with.
January 27, 2012 @ 4:22 pm
In order to become naturalized, one must have a reasonable understanding of the English language.
I agree her citizenship needs to be verified.
January 28, 2012 @ 1:56 pm
English as a Second Language, well from my experience of being saddled with this hideous task, from Austin Community College in the ’90′s, it is a cruel, wicked joke. Students would show up with papers, after attending for a week or two, demanding that I sign, saying that they were proficient in English! Well, they were not even proficient in Spanish! Illiterate, and barely able to write their name out! Lawyers would then send letters… threatening me. “Humbug!” to them, was my retort. (The students, had not a clue as to my written reply to their lawyers. Of course they did not.)
In High School, I would see non English proficient students that were shuffled in, pampered and shuffled on out. The School District got it’s State monies and trouble was avoided with the dangerous Hispanic Activists.
What a cruel laughable joke, my own Citizenship is, has become. Reduced to junk, BUT, I am expected to pay taxes, play by the myriad of laws/rules, endure the double standards of being punished if I violate anything, all while watching this alien crowd, get the proverbial, GET OUT OF JAIL,–FREE– “card”… .
So this whole question of being “Naturalized”, is also, largely farcical and the Powers That Be, know it, and agencies like, The “American” Chamber of Commerce, cheer it on.
And, she can, if she can, learn the language of “our” country, rest assured, she is not a US of A, follower, participant or patriot! Her national, racial soul is elsewhere. She will fly her Mexican Flags, she will denounce the Gringos, will go to Reconquesta and La Raza Unita meetings, with nary a care that she is a hypocrite when she screams at me and others, her loveys, that I am a “racist”… . Remember, silly Sheeple, she is not racist, so say the media, the Courts… . So, get out of her way. She has a mission, a job to do.
I have long since, have had enough of this.
January 27, 2012 @ 6:30 pm
Citizen??? This woman graduated from a high school in Yuma and she doesn’t speak english. This alone should prove the damage caused by not having one official language and teaching in it. Not only does it impair the ability of persons who speak another language to move up the economic ladder, but they cannot serve in a political position. Nuff Said
January 28, 2012 @ 11:24 am
Good.
Let her learn the language of this country and then try to run again.