--- title: Sarah Palin Tells Immigrants 'Speak American' in Interview description: She also would get rid of the Department of Energy if Donald Trump tapped her for his administration canonical: https://time.com/4024396/sarah-palin-speak-american-energy-department/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-07T15:45:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:47:06.429Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sarah Palin Wants Immigrants to 'Speak American' og:description: She'd also get rid of the Dept. of Energy if asked to serve in Trump's cabinet og:url: https://time.com/4024396/sarah-palin-speak-american-energy-department/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f00c6e417d6092c/69886159cf40a83c53c3f728/palin.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1656 og:image:height: 932 og:image:alt: sarah palin og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sarah Palin Wants Immigrants to 'Speak American' twitter:description: She'd also get rid of the Dept. of Energy if asked to serve in Trump's cabinet twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f00c6e417d6092c/69886159cf40a83c53c3f728/palin.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sarah Palin Wants Immigrants to 'Speak American' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Sep 7, 2015 3:45 PM UTC  Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin addresses the 42nd annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 26, 2015 in National Harbor, Maryland. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin addresses the 42nd annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 26, 2015 in National Harbor, Maryland.Alex Wong—Getty Images  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Sep 7, 2015 3:45 PM UTC Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said in a recent interview that U.S. immigrants should “speak American” and that she’d get rid of the Department of Energy if Donald Trump asked her to serve in his administration. During a Sunday appearance on CNN’s _State of the Union_, host Jake Tapper asked Palin what she thought of Trump’s insistence that fellow presidential hopeful Jeb Bush [speak only English](http://www.people.com/article/donald-trump-jeb-bush-speaking-spanish) on the campaign trail. “It’s a benefit of Bush to be able to be so fluent, because we have a large and wonderful Hispanic population that’s helping to build America,” she said [according to The Wrap](http://www.thewrap.com/sarah-palin-has-a-message-for-immigrants-speak-american/). Then she added, “We can send a message and say, ‘You want to be in America, A, you’d better be here legally or you’re out of here. B, when you’re here, let’s speak American. Let’s speak English, and that’s a kind of a unifying aspect of a nation is the language that is understood by all.” Trump recently said that Palin was [“a special person”](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/07/29/sarah-palin-would-be-welcome-in-a-trump-administration-the-billionaire-says/) and that he’d “love” for her to be part of his administration if elected. Palin herself told CNN that she’d be a qualified candidate for the Department of Energy, given the former Alaskan governor’s knowledge of “oil and gas and minerals, those things that God has dumped on this part of the Earth for mankind’s use.” (Though [as the _Washington Post_ notes](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/09/06/sarah-palin-would-like-to-be-energy-secretary-but-not-for-long/), that’d make her a better fit for the Department of Interior.) The job as energy secretary wouldn’t last long, however. “If I were head of that, I would get rid of it,” Palin said. “And I would let the states start having more control over the lands that are within their boundaries and the people who are affected by the developments within their space.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4024396/sarah-palin-speak-american-energy-department/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4024396/sarah-palin-speak-american-energy-department/"},"headline":"Sarah Palin Wants Immigrants to 'Speak American'","datePublished":"2015-09-07T15:45:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:47:06.429Z","description":"She also would get rid of the Dept. of Energy if Donald Trump tapped her for his cabinet","url":"https://time.com/4024396/sarah-palin-speak-american-energy-department/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Donald Trump","Sarah Palin"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f00c6e417d6092c/69886159cf40a83c53c3f728/palin.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f00c6e417d6092c/69886159cf40a83c53c3f728/palin.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"sarah palin","caption":"sarah palin","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4024396/sarah-palin-speak-american-energy-department/","name":"Sarah Palin Wants Immigrants to 'Speak American'"}}]}] ```