Trump Administration Orders US Agencies to Operate in English, Threatening Services for 27 Million

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has ordered all United States federal agencies to slash foreign-language services and conduct government business primarily in English, executing a hardline policy pivot that imperils access to public assistance for more than 27 million residents.

The sweeping directive spares almost nothing. Official correspondence, federal regulations, public health notices, benefit applications, websites, educational toolkits, and artificial intelligence tools must now run exclusively in English, the Justice Department ordered in fresh guidance released on Thursday.

"Agencies should strive to operate solely in English," the Justice Department memorandum instructed.

The shift dismantles decades of bipartisan federal practice designed to guarantee public services to residents who speak, read, or write little English. That foundation fractured in March 2025, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing English as the official language of the United States. While the original White House decree stopped short of ordering the immediate termination of multilingual translation desks, the Justice Department's enforcement blueprint now turns that preference into an operational iron fist.

Exceptions remain extraordinarily narrow. Agencies may publish non-English materials only when expressly mandated by statutory law or deemed strictly vital to healthcare operations and national security.

Shuttered Portals and Shrinking Access Across Federal Desks

The real-world fallout arrived immediately.

Earlier this week, the General Services Administration dismantled the Spanish-language edition of USA.gov, the central digital switchboard for federal services. Launched in 2003, the Spanish portal answered millions of basic civil inquiries for more than two decades. Now, visitors typing in the Spanish web address run directly into an automatic redirect that shunts them to the standard English page.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development moved along an identical track over the summer, stripping foreign-language resources and translation options from its tenant-assistance programs and public housing registries.

More than 27 million people nationwide maintain limited English proficiency. Policy analysts tracking language rights warned that the Justice Department's directive will spark a broader purge across the federal bureaucracy.

The Justice Department formally opened a public comment period on the guidance that remains open until January 11. Yet department officials confirmed that the memorandum, originally drafted and circulated to agency heads in September, carries full legal weight and is already actively enforced across the federal government.