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Immigration divides small Florida town

By Casey Woods

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

AVON PARK, Fla. - As the summer haze peaks in this small citrus town, children race each other down lakefront beaches of cream-colored sand. Drivers of battered trucks beep and nod at neighbors walking down Main Street. Teenagers bike past the pristine white gazebo on the town square.

It's a rhythm that feels eternal and unchanged.

But on this humid night in the Taqueria Merlo, one of the few new businesses on Main Street, something is different. Dozens of immigrants and their sympathizers - stunned by a barely-failed city ordinance that would have fined landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and penalized companies that hire them - are fighting back.

For many, the first goal is clear: boot the mayor who proposed the ordinance and the councilman who backed him.

''I came to Avon Park because it seemed like a little piece of heaven in the middle of nowhere,'' said Juan Montoya, 49, an immigrant from El Salvador who owns a small used-car dealership. ``I don't want to get involved in politics, but in this case, they hurt my heart with what they did.''

Mixing anger, fear and determination, Montoya and 50 others - including many members of the city's powerful farming community - minted the Concerned Citizens of Avon Park.

The ordinance proposed by Mayor Tom Macklin, which declared illegal immigration ''destroys our neighborhoods and diminishes our overall quality of life,'' stirred simmering black resentment against immigrants, galvanized the agricultural industry to vocally oppose the measure and, many feel, exposed prejudices that weren't apparent before. Here in small-town America - where illegal immigration is often most felt but where people feel helpless to manage it - the frustrations run deep.

Although the ordinance failed in a 3-2 vote at a contentious July 24 council meeting, Avon Park's factions brace for more divisiveness. Macklin has said he might try again.

This ''City of Charm,'' as it bills itself, lies at the epicenter of the immigration battle simmering in communities across the nation, including Palm Bay in Brevard County, which recently tentatively approved a similar proposal.

In this town of 8,800, there are hundreds of immigrant families that hail mostly from Mexico, but also from Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica and beyond.

Macklin says his desire to take action against illegal immigration began with a practical issue: migrant housing. During the harvest season, workers fill houses and apartments, often cramming more than a dozen men into a single dwelling. Low fines make it easy to violate the law.

His inspiration came from a talk radio show spotlighting a proposed ordinance in Hazelton, Pa., that would make English the official language and penalize landlords who rent to undocumented immigrants and businesses that hire them.

''It was like when you're sitting in church and suddenly feel like the preacher is speaking only to you,'' said Macklin, a tanned man who rides a motorcycle to council meetings. "I compared it to a religious experience.''

Macklin created his own ''Illegal Immigration Relief Act.'' It went well beyond merely addressing a housing issue - as did Macklin's intent, which was to put pressure on Congress to crack down on illegal immigration.

''If I were a congressman in Washington and I saw a thousand little grass fires breaking out across the country, with those grass fires being cities and towns and villages and counties attempting to do the job that they haven't been willing or able to do ... I'd be afraid,'' he said.

A mile out of town, a series of signs in front of the Wild Turkey Tavern traces the ferocity of the debate. ''Entering Avon Park - have green card and passport ready,'' one read. One put up during Israel's bombing of Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon noted: "I still say, let Israel handle immigration.''

Tavern owner Mike Reark echoed the sentiments of other locals: "We seem to not be willing to handle our problems, and Israelis don't seem to have a problem handling their issues. I admire the city for trying ... to take a stand.''

Some of the deepest disappointment over the ordinance's failure seethes in Avon Park's predominantly black neighborhood, South Side.

Dotted with abandoned houses and empty lots, waist-high with weeds, the bedraggled community bears the scars of decades of decline. Residents have watched with suspicion as migrants consumed the citrus-picking jobs blacks once held, Hispanics who are legal residents moved into public housing and Spanish fluency became a preferred skill for government jobs.

''Small towns are being overwhelmed by these illegals, and the people who are hurt the most are poor, uneducated black people,'' South Side resident Willie Jenkins, 58, said. "I'm most concerned about our young black kids who are not going to be able to get jobs.''

The only black member of the council, Brenda Gray, cast the swing vote that doomed the ordinance. 'People in the black community wanted me to vote for it, and they kept on saying, `It's about time for that,''' she said. 'I kept asking, `About time for what?' ''

Gray said the effect of undocumented immigrants on the job market was a concern, but that the ordinance's claims that immigrants were responsible for higher crime and failing schools were unsupported.

Members of the farming community, citing the area's low unemployment rate of 2.7 percent, dismiss the claims that immigrants equal economic strife.

''Anybody who wants a job around here can get a job,'' dairy farmer Joe Wright said, pointing to a ''Drivers Wanted - Apply Within'' sign hanging outside the dairy trucking cooperative he leads. "The tough question we have to ask is if this whole illegal alien thing is being used as a scapegoat for mismanagement by the City Council for the past two decades.''

Wright was among those business owners who threatened a boycott of Avon Park establishments if the measure passed.

Avon Park's struggling Main Street looks like it could hardly bear another blow. The faded glory of the old Jacaranda Hotel and the genteel sway of Spanish moss on oak trees can't hide the many empty storefronts. Strip malls along U.S. 27 a few miles from Main Street have sucked the life out of it.

Failed or not, the proposed ordinance could hurt next year's harvest. Many migrants, nearing the end of their picking season, cleared out overnight when word spread about the measure. Harvesting crew leaders told citrus growers they weren't coming back next season.

''They told us they weren't going to bring their people to a place where they were going to get harassed,'' said citrus farmer John Barben.

Citrus industry experts estimate about 4,500 workers are employed during the picking season in Highlands County, home to Avon Park. Not all are seasonal migrants.

Citrus growers already struggle to find workers. This year, for the first time in recent memory, some growers are watching fruit die on the tree for lack of pickers.

For many of the town's longtime Hispanic residents, the debate's aftermath has borne an even more bitter harvest: the sudden sense that they are unwelcome.

''This thing has awakened hate in the people who already had prejudices inside them,'' said Salvadorean immigrant Irma Montoya, 43.

While it shattered a sense of harmony for many, the controversy also dispelled political apathy in the community by immigrants and others. ''It's too bad that it took this to do it, but this is long overdue,'' said Diana Rodriguez, vice president of Concerned Citizens of Avon Park.

At the group's first meeting, Avon Park's newest political class discussed voter registration drives, city beautification efforts and ways to mend a "divided city."

Among the group's goals is to create a new holiday for Avon Park: July 24.

"From here on out, this city is going to celebrate that day, because it was a big victory for us," said Patricia Austin, a military contractor. "That was the day we woke up."