Nicole Raz
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) A three-year-old ordinance in Frederick County, requiring that official county business be conducted in English, may come down after county residents weigh in Tuesday evening during a public hearing.
Councilmember Jessica Fitzwater sponsored the bill to repeal the ordinance, which she says is anti-immigrant and is hurting local business.
“We have a growing number of global bio-tech and life-science firms in Frederick that are looking to attract the best and brightest scientists and researches,” she said, adding that it can be difficult to do so when families aren’t willing to relocate to the county for fear they may be unwelcome.
“Even the elected officials at the time stated that the purpose [of the ordnance] was to send the message and to set a tone,” Fitzwater told WMAL. “It certainly has, and it’s been a negative message and a tone that’s been unwelcoming.”
Maria Shuck with Centro Hispano says immigrants within Frederick felt the negativity.
“I think there was a lot of anti-immigrant sentiment and I think that there was a lot of resentment with the incoming Latino immigrants that were coming in,” Shuck said. “It just kind of served to say, ‘You are not welcome here, move on.’”
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