Bill on Migrants Splits a Town With Few

But supporters of Chamberlain, including two activists from Montgomery County, were wildly applauded when they implored the council to pass the resolution, saying it would send an important message to Maryland and the nation.

"If the federal government can't or won't fix the problem, we in small towns must do it. Maryland is already a sanctuary state," said Pamela Robbins, a hospital worker who spoke about a patient, in for an expensive test, who had no identification or insurance and could not speak English. "Sometimes you have to step back from saving the world and save the little piece that belongs to you."

Away from the heat and glare, residents expressed more complicated, often contradictory opinions. Many said they were worried about reports of foreigners flooding larger towns in the region: the Hispanic laborers who came to pick apples in Pennsylvania and stayed, the Muslim group that is trying to buy a farm in nearby Walkersville and turn it into a retreat. Yet no one reported having any negative encounters with immigrants, and a handful of employers praised them as hardworking.

"I can get along with just about anybody," said Wilson Speak, 64, a veteran driver and warehouse worker at a Southern States feed and grain depot. "We don't see a whole lot of migrants around here, but my feeling is as long as they're legal, pay their taxes and abide by the laws, I have no problem with it."

Kevin Few, 42, a construction worker, said Hispanic migrants are driving down wages in Maryland and making it hard for people like him to find work. "Personally, 99 percent of them seem nice, clean and hardworking," he said. "But they come here, do our work for nothing, cram into apartments and buy new cars, while the rest of us are struggling to make ends meet. It's not fair."

At the local McDonald's, retirees meeting for coffee said they were not aware of Chamberlain's resolution but were nervous that illegal immigrants would come to the area. One woman, who said she was afraid to be identified, explained, lowering her voice: "If I tell you my name, the illegals might look up my address and come after me. They've already broken the laws, so what do they care?"

Across the room, two Mexican ranch workers sat unnoticed in a corner, eating burgers and fries. They said that they earned $25 an hour cleaning stables in the countryside and that the local people seemed friendly enough. One, Jose de la Luz, 27, offered an opinion about how to revitalize the area's economy.

"This place is nice, but it has no life," he said in Spanish. "What it needs is more Hispanics. You go to other towns in Maryland, you see them everywhere, shopping in Wal-Mart, working two jobs, buying stuff for their kids. I think a lot of Americans are afraid of us," he said with a grin. "But I say we are bringing life to this country."

Like their constituents, Taneytown officials have mixed views on illegal immigration. They worry that a flood of poor Hispanic workers would hurt the town but realize that something has to change for it to survive. Carl Ebaugh, a City Council member, said he supported Chamberlain but regretted that that issue had "gotten a little ugly."

"Fear is driving this -- fear of the unknown," Ebaugh said. "We need to get past this bump and onto other issues, such as our problems with water and sewer, the need to develop more industry, more useful ways to spend our time."

But anger was the dominant mood in the fire hall Wednesday night, anger expressed in jeers and whoops that McCarron had to stop repeatedly. As one activist from Montgomery spoke, warning that illegal immigrants would bring crime and burden public services, a Salvadoran woman named Ana Cruz listened in the corridor outside.

"How can they talk about us like that?" said Cruz, 53, weeping with rage.

"I worked hard for 27 years. I never asked for anything. I cleaned houses. I raised four children. They are all citizens, and two of them are in Iraq now. I want to say this, but I am afraid," she said, turning to leave. Inside the room, the activist kept speaking, and cheers erupted.