Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Lathan Watts (City of Lewisville)

The city council of Lewisville, Tex., last week rejected a measure to make English the only language allowed on government documents.

Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Lathan Watts (R) had put the measure on the council’s agenda, citing the need to save money on translating documents into many different languages. (Never mind that the city spends just $475.60 on document translation out of a $100 million budget.) While Latino residents of Lewisville called the proposal “offensive,” Watts told a WFAA reporter, “It has nothing to do with race or bias for or against one language or another.”

But Spanish was clearly the targeted language, since about a fifth of Lewisville residents speak Spanish at home. Spanish-speaking residents were also the target of an English-only law in Farmers Branch, the Dallas suburb famous for its controversial ordinance designed to keep illegal immigrants from living or working in the city.

The fate of Farmers Branch—which has been embroiled in lawsuits since passing its laws in 2007—was likely in Lewisville councilmembers’ minds when the English-only motion failed to get a second and did not reach the floor for a vote. As Mayor Gene Carey said, “The last thing I want to do is turn this city into another Farmers Branch and create what’s been created there.”

Does this mean that Latino advocates are defeating the local immigration ordinance movement? Maybe. But on the other hand, new regulations just took effect in Texas that would make legal immigrants carry drivers’ licenses reading “Temporary Visitor,” so that law enforcement officials will know they are not citizens.