Bill on Migrants Splits a Town With Few

What Some Called a Preventive Measure Seemed to Others an Effort to Fan Biases

TANEYTOWN, Md. -- There are fewer than two dozen foreign-born residents in this historic but ailing town of 6,700 near the Pennsylvania border, including a Mexican landscaper and a Chinese family that owns a restaurant on Main Street. There are no store signs in Spanish, no crowded boarding houses, no men looking for jobs on the corners.

Yet this month, the bitter regional and national debate over illegal immigration has reached remote Taneytown. It has divided local officials, drawn activists and TV crews to town meetings and exposed deep emotional fault lines in a small, largely white farming community that feels both afraid it might be overwhelmed by poor Hispanics who are in the country illegally and ashamed it might be tarred as racist and intolerant.

The focus of the fast-sharpening dispute has been a City Council resolution, which was narrowly defeated Monday night, that declared: "The City of Taneytown is not a sanctuary city for illegal aliens." It warned that the town "does not welcome individuals who are in the United States illegally," suggesting they would harm the quality of life. It would have directed local officials to assist residents in supporting the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Paul Chamberlain, the council member sponsoring the resolution, acknowledges that Taneytown has no problem with illegal immigrants. But he sees an apocalypse coming: the gangs, the trash, the crowding that communities in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia have attributed to an influx of impoverished, often undocumented Mexicans and Central Americans. And he hopes that putting up a virtual keep-out sign will steer them away from the corner of Carroll County.

"This is a preventive measure. Other places are passing laws against illegals, so where will they go? To the places that welcome them," said Chamberlain, a dapper man who sells recreational vehicles. "I am not trying to spew hatred against anyone, but I will not cower just because someone calls me a bigot. We have got to send a clear message that people who break the law are not welcome here."

The resolution's defeat was partly the result of strong opposition from Mayor James McCarron, who called illegal immigration a federal problem. A majority of council members agreed with him, voting 3 to 2 against the resolution.

In the January issue of the Taneytown Newsletter, McCarron called the resolution "an attempt to inflame and divide the city."

"Taneytown is not a sanctuary city for illegal aliens, and it has no intention of ever becoming one," the mayor said in exasperation. "It is not up to us to fix the problem of illegal immigration, but I assure you that anyone who breaks the law here, whether robbing a bank or being an illegal alien, will be prosecuted."

Nevertheless, the proposal has struck a raw nerve in the region of family farms and country traditions, where old barns slowly sink into the rolling hills and modern development has been even slower to replace them. Union troops famously stopped here for a few nights in 1863 on their way north to the decisive battle at Gettysburg. Now Taneytowners worry that their struggling community will become a magnet for unfamiliar forces of change.

On Wednesday night, at a crowded public meeting in the volunteer fire hall to discuss Chamberlain's resolution, the room seethed with suppressed emotion, and the debate barely remained civil, with jeers and cheers interrupting many speakers.

A few residents called for compassion toward refugees or said they were embarrassed to see officials pandering to ugly emotions. Gail Wilson, a resident, said Taneytown had worked hard to overcome the historic taint of racism and become known as a welcoming community. "This resolution could bring back the hostility we fought to get rid of," she said.

The sole immigrant who spoke, a Mexican landscaper and legal resident named Rafael Zamora, said he had moved from Germantown to "build a better life for my family." Apologizing for his thick accent, he asked the town to give people like him a chance, and he received a smattering of polite applause.