Pahrump resident Bob Tamburrino flies the Italian and Polish flags he and his wife raised on Saturday to protest a new town ordinance that disallows the flying of a foreign flag by itself, makes English the town's official language and denies town benefits to illegal immigrants. Photo by John Gurzinski.

PAHRUMP -- In a small act of civil disobedience, Pahrump residents Bob and Liese Tamburrino on Saturday raised an Italian flag and a Polish flag over their garage.

In a not-so-civil act, a vandal or vandals, in the middle of the night less than 24 hours later, egged their Italian flag.

"They probably thought it was a Mexican flag," Bob Tamburrino said of the Italian flag, which was chosen as a tribute to his ancestry.

The Pahrump Town Board on Nov. 14 adopted an ordinance that bans the flying of foreign flags by themselves.

The board also declared English the town's official language and denied unspecified, and apparently nonexistent, town benefits to undocumented immigrants.

The Tamburrinos, who are incensed at the ordinance they say is unconstitutional and smacks of racism, called police after the egging even though they could have been ticketed for violating the new ordinance.

But officers did not cite the couple, and Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo said Wednesday that he has no plans to ever enforce the ordinance.

DeMeo also called it unconstitutional.

"The sheriff is a constitutional office," he said. "My job is to make sure when we enforce something there's a constitutionality behind it."

The ordinance also is divisive, DeMeo said.

"I don't think passing an ordinance like this is healthy to the community. It's driving a wedge between certain segments of the population."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada has threatened to sue the town over the ordinance.

But the issue could be moot come January. Four of Pahrump's five town board members, including the member who brought the ordinance forward, are leaving office at the end of the year.

The only remaining board member, Laurayne Murray, voted against the ordinance and on Wednesday said she believes the new board will overturn it.

The Tamburrinos said the Italian flag's similarity to that of Mexico probably confused the vandals, who may have targeted it as a way of enforcing the ordinance.

During the heated Nov. 14 meeting at which the ordinance was adopted, several proponents promised they would take it upon themselves to enforce the ordinance after Town Board Chairman Richard Billman called it unenforceable.

Since then, some Latino Pahrump residents have been harassed.

Lucero Enrriquez, a Mexican immigrant and the owner of Mi Ranchito market in Pahrump, received an anonymous postcard last week that said, in part, "We are sick to our stomachs of seeing Mexicans on every street walking with 2 or 3 kids and the mother has (2) more in her belly. ... You people are draining and abusing our welfare system and we are frankly sick of it."

George Romero, owner of Pahrump's Romero's Mexican restaurant, said he got a call on Friday from an unidentified man who told him, "If I didn't like the ordinance, I could get out of town."

Romero said he has heard of other similar incidents in Pahrump since the ordinance's passage.

"They are opening a can of hatred and prejudice," he said.

DeMeo discouraged people from taking the law into their own hands and said anyone who does so will be arrested.

"If you start victimizing a segment of our population, we will be there to arrest you," he said. "If anyone commits a crime because of someone else's ethnic background, they can face being arrested for hate crimes. We have a zero tolerance for that type of attitude."

Town board member Michael Miraglia, who brought the ordinance forward, said he was tired of encountering people who do not speak English.

He mentioned a specific incident at a restaurant in which a worker did not understand Miraglia's request for a napkin.

The final ordinance was a stripped down version of a previous proposal that would have made it illegal to hire, do business with or loan money to illegal immigrants.

Miraglia said he toned it down a bit because the town doesn't have the money or resources to go after employers and landlords.

He did not return a call seeking comment on Wednesday.

The Pahrump ordinance does not specify what benefits will be denied undocumented immigrants.

Public aid in the community is administered by the county or state, and DeMeo said his department has no plans to deny any services.

"The Nye County sheriff's office dispatch center is not going to ask someone's national status before we send a police car to their residence," he said.

Dozens of communities nationwide have considered or have passed measures that crack down on illegal immigrants.

In Texas, the Farmers Branch City Council approved making English the city's official language and fining landlords who rent to illegal immigrants.

On Nov. 7, more than 70 percent of Arizona voters approved making English the official state language.

Arizona voters also approved ballot measures to prevent illegal immigrants from taking adult-education classes, getting state-funded child care aid and paying in-state tuition at state colleges and universities.

Nevada lame-duck Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, R-Reno, has requested a bill draft with a provision that would designate English the official language of Nevada.

State Sen. Sandra Tiffany, another lame-duck lawmaker, has filed a bill draft request with provisions to prevent "unauthorized aliens from receiving certain benefits."

Their proposals are not likely to be prioritized, because Angle and Tiffany won't be in office for the 2007 legislative session.

While foes say such measures are rooted in racism, proponents say they have been forced to take matters into their own hands because the federal government has not dealt with illegal immigration from Mexico.