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March 28, 2019

"This Is Not Mexico": Texas Official Blasts Judge for Speaking Spanish
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In Texas, a Houston-area county official is under fire after he
criticized a judge for speaking Spanish on television. On March 25,
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo was giving updates in both English and
Spanish about a chemical fire that was burning at a petrochemical plant
in the Houston suburb of Deer Park. The press conference was carried
live on the Facebook page of Houston's CBS affiliate KHOU, where Mark
Tice, a Chambers County commissioner, posted the comment, "She is a
joke. English this is not Mexico." Following a public uproar, Tice later
apologized. Census data show Harris County is 43 percent Latino, and
nearly half of its residents speak a language other than English at
home.


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