So after his appointment this year to fill a vacancy on the town board, Mr. Miraglia, 67, proposed an ordinance declaring English the official language of Pahrump, an unincorporated town of about 35,000 people in Nye County, 60 miles west of Las Vegas. The proposal also denied unspecified town benefits to "undocumented foreign nationals" and forbade the flying of any foreign flag without an accompanying American flag.

Mr. Miraglia said that the English Language and Patriot Reaffirmation Ordinance, as he called it, was intended to bring the community together under a common language and custom. But its adoption on Nov. 14, by a vote of 3 to 2, has had the opposite effect.

"It has stirred up anger toward the immigrants," said Arturo A. Reyes, 40, who came to the United States from El Salvador two decades ago and became a citizen. Mr. Reyes, who owns El Cancún Mexican Restaurant on Highway 160, also known as Main Street, added, "The whole thing is just bad; it's just stupid."

Mr. Miraglia saw it differently.

"These people are breaking the law," he said of the illegal immigrants here, most of whom are Hispanic, "and they should be prosecuted somehow."

Pahrump, known for its legal brothels, is not the only community to pass anti-immigration or English-only measures in recent months. Similar laws have been adopted in Taneytown, Md.; Farmers Branch, Tex.; and Hazlton, Pa. In November, Arizona voters made English that state's official language.

Pahrump's English-only ordinance is likely to be short-lived because the three board members who voted for it, including Mr. Miraglia, will be replaced in January by newly elected members who have said that they oppose the ordinance and want to rescind it.

[Last Tuesday, the board defeated another proposal by Mr. Miraglia that would have required illegal foreign workers to register at the town hall, pay a $200 fee and provide personal information, including a list of relatives living in the United States.]

The hullabaloo surrounding Mr. Miraglia's latest proposal and the language ordinance has caused friction here.

Some Hispanic residents have said that since Mr. Miraglia's proposals were introduced, people in passing cars have yelled racial slurs at them.

Lee Rowland, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said students had been harassed by school officials for speaking Spanish in private conversations.

And eggs have been thrown at the home of Robert and Liese Tamburrino, a white couple who protested the ordinance by flying Italian and Polish flags, representing the heritage of Mr. Tamburrino's parents. They also received a hate letter calling them "thimble-brained, knuckle-dragging cretins."

"This is a blatant act of civil disobedience," said Mr. Tamburrino, 59, who bought the flags the day after the ordinance passed. "I'm breaking the law. Three people spoke for 35,000, and the way they spoke reeks of prejudice and ignorance. I do not see the Mexican immigrants as a burden on me or my community at all. I see them as just trying to feed their families and doing jobs other Americans don't want to do."

The language ordinance also has burnished an image of Pahrump as an Old West backwater, which many residents say is inaccurate. Census data show it is one of the fastest-growing communities in the nation. The population has surged by more than 45 percent since 2000. More than 10,000 new homes are under construction and the city has three golf courses and a country club with a racetrack for collectible car owners.

"It is very embarrassing to us when things like this happen," said Laurayne Murray, a Town Board member who opposed the language ordinance and the worker registration proposal. "It's unconstitutional, it's unenforceable and I don't think it reflects how most people here think."

It is unclear how many immigrants - or non-English speakers - live in Pahrump. Hispanics were 7.6 percent of the population, the 2000 census said. But most people say the figure has grown, a perception supported by the four local elementary schools, where 12 percent to 17 percent of students are Hispanic.

That apparent growth has unnerved some old-timers here, including Fred Harvard, 61, who supported the ordinance.

"They come in here, they take the jobs, they take away the services that belong to real Americans and they don't respect our flag," said Mr. Harvard, who was born in Nevada. "It's not right."

Mr. Miraglia's original version of the ordinance would have created penalties for hiring illegal immigrants and for renting dwellings and loaning money to them, but he said he removed those provisions because the town could not afford the cost of going after landlords and employers.

"People can still speak their own language on their own, but we just wanted to establish English as the language for the town of Pahrump so we don't have to publish everything in 7 or 10 different languages," Mr. Miraglia said. "It only benefits people who come here to learn English because they can be a part of the community. If you and I were speaking, how would we communicate if we didn't have a common language? And our common language is English."

Mr. Miraglia said he learned from an e-mail message from a constituent that the provision about flying foreign flags violated freedom of speech. "I sent it to our town manager and we agreed it probably isn't constitutional," he said.

Ms. Rowland of the A.C.L.U. said that she tried to explain the problem with the flag provision to Mr. Miraglia and the rest of the Board on Nov. 14, but her voice may have been drowned out by hecklers.

Tony DeMeo, the sheriff of Nye County, said he tried to make the same point when he issued a statement saying that he would not enforce the restriction on displaying flags.

George Romero, 36, who owns two Mexican restaurants and a convenience store in Pahrump, said the board did not listen because it was motivated by "cut-and-dried racism." But Mr. Romero said he did not think that the board's attitude reflected that of most of Pahrump, even though one of his restaurants was painted with anti-Mexican slurs on May 1, when he closed them in observance of the national "Day Without An Immigrant" protests.

"There's an immigration problem in the whole country," Mr. Romero said, "but as far as them taking other people's jobs in Pahrump, I guarantee you businesses would hire the most qualified and legalized people if they were available."