Why not smoke a peace pipe and do a rain dance for the Native American vote?
I have known many people from many countries and I don't think I have ever met one that did not appreciate a person taking the effort to speak to them in their native language. Only about 25% of Americans are bilingual.
Their native language is irrelevant if they are a US citizen. Even the military will only take so many people who do not speak fluent English and they send them to school BEFORE training them because they can't understand what they read or hear in English.
I think the issue being raised was whether Mexicans would be insulted to have people speaking to them in Spanish. I have never known a Mexican who did. I speak a little Spanish, French, and German. I try to speak to people in their native language when I can because it's a friendly gesture.
If your point is American citizens should be able to speak English, I agree.
So you agree that pandering to illegals is OK?
There are 41 million people living the US that speak Spanish as there native language and the vast majority are not illegally in the country. Speaking to someone in their native language is not pandering. It is both a courtesy and the best way to communicate with a person who speaks little or no English. Keep in mind that knowing a language does not mean you're able to communicate with everyone effectively. It all depends on how fast a person is speaking English, their accent, and the language level being spoken.
People come to the US for different reason, vacation, visit family, a work assignment, to become a permanent resident, attend school, or to work toward becoming a citizen. There mastery of English will vary with every person. The same sort of thing occurs when Americans travel abroad. Foreigners coming to the US generally are much more affluent in the language than Americans traveling abroad because most Americans are not literate in any foreign language.