I think of myself as a word nerd. I enjoy words and writing. I love dictionaries. I am entertained by learning new words. I sometimes drive my family up the wall with puns. I’m more comfortable discussing the winners and runners-up of the Scripps National Spelling Bee than the hockey playoffs. This year is the 100th anniversary of Scripps as the national spelling bee of the English language. If you haven’t caught up with it yet. Faizan Zaki, age 13, won the Bee last night. He outlasted eight other finalists to win with the word “éclaircissement”. The word means enlightenment. The rules of the spelling contest do not require spellers to name the accent over the e. However, I believe that Zaki could have done it. He lists learning French as one of his hobbies in the official bio for the contest, so I bet he knows it is called accent aigu. It is one of five accent marks in French. Aigu changes the pronunciation of the letter “e” to “ay” if you try to pronounce éclaircissement correctly. I learned that bit of trivia when I studied French in college. Zaki’s hobby of learning other languages paid off in his victory.

The victory was especially sweet for Zaki because he came in second last year. He came so close to winning when he was 12 years old. He spelled every word in the conventional rounds correctly in that contest, but lost in a lightning-round tiebreaker. Last year’s winner, Sarvadnya Kadam, also made it to the final round of three spellers this year. Zaki came close to losing it again this year when he became overconfident near the end of the competition. He was two words away from winning when he received “commelina.” Instead of asking questions about the definition or language of origin, he began with “K-A-M” and then stopped himself. That meant the other two finalists returned to the stage and the contest progressed until Zaki finally won.

As a language nerd, I can’t help but notice that last night's three finalists, Faizan Zaki, Sarv Shailesh Dharavane, and Sarvadnya Jitendra Kadam, are all Indian-Americans. Children of parents who immigrated to the United States from India have dominated the contest for the last 25 years. Keep your eyes on Dharavane. He is only 11 years old, and he has a few more national competitions in him.

In light of the contest and its history of strong Indian-American spellers, it is alarming to me to read that more than 1,000 Indian nationals have been deported from the United States since January. In February, more than 100 Indians were transported to India on a US military flight. News stories of that flight reported that some of them were shackled during the flight. Because the current administration is deporting people without due process, it is impossible to determine if some or all of those deported were in the United States illegally.

There are many systems in our country that are dependent upon attracting immigrants from other countries. One example is our health care system. U.S. colleges and Universities do not graduate enough doctors, nurses, and technicians to meet the needs of our health care system. The high costs of medical education combined with strict restrictions on the number of students admitted to medical colleges have resulted in shortages of qualified professionals. To meet this demand, hospitals and other medical practices depend on immigrants. India has high standards for medical education, and doctors trained in that country can meet the strict requirements to practice in the United States. Of course, not all Indian-Americans are medical professionals. Families immigrate together. They invite their friends to come and live near them. Immigrants from India fill other vital jobs in our country. First- and second-generation Indians are engineers, professors, firefighters, law enforcement officers, and pilots, and serve in many different occupations. Mass deportations threaten a significant brain drain for our country, one that could have lasting impacts well beyond the term of the current administration.

What happens if we deport the families of future Scripps National Spelling Bee winners? How much do we lose if we deport those who know best how to spell our language? Have those harping on English as the official language considered the implications?

More important than my silly questions is the reality that we not only import people from other countries. We live in a connected world. As last night’s spelling bee illustrated, we also import words from different languages. Our books are richer and more entertaining because we adopt words. Unlike last night’s winner, I am not good at learning other languages. However, my formal education required learning different languages. I studied French in college partly because of a foreign language requirement for advanced degrees. I studied Hebrew and Greek in seminary because those are the languages of the Bible. I frequently refer to original languages and translation challenges when preaching and teaching the Bible.

Attempts to deport people whose origins are different than our own do not make us more secure. Removing books from libraries because they contain words from other languages does not make us better educated. Isolationist policies weaken national economies. The current “America First” declarations inevitably lead to America falling behind.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is not a political event. It celebrates the English language and those who continue to master its intricacies and nuances. It has been a delightful element of our national culture for a century. It doesn’t attract the big crowds of major sporting events, but it contributes to our culture. We are who we are partly because people are dedicated to teaching and learning the intricacies of language and culture. One of the things that we are learning and teaching is how interconnected we all are. English does not stand alone, but is in constant interplay with the world's other languages.

A hundred years from now, the national spelling bee will include words whose language of origin is Indian. That’s how language works.