The group was founded in 1994 as English Language Advocates. The group was established by John Tanton, a leading figure in the anti-immigration movement, along with several of his associates from the organization U.S. English, from which Tanton had resigned after a controversy over racially-charged memos that he had written. The organization is part of Tanton's broader "loose-knit" network of anti-immigration organizations; others include Californians for Population Stabilization, the Center for Immigration Studies, NumbersUSA, and Social Contract Press. As of 2015, ProEnglish "is one of the few remaining groups in Tanton's network in which he remains actively involved." ProEnglish is a project of US Inc., a Petoskey, Michigan-based 501(c)(3) group that is also part of the Tanton network. Dr. Tanton died in July 2019.