Miguel Munoz was standing in a drug store parking lot having a conversation in Spanish when a pickup pulled up beside him. The driver shouted curses, shook his fist and called Munoz an "illegal alien."

"He said, 'When you come to my country, you need to speak English,' " said Munoz, a Durham lawyer who immigrated legally from Mexico 17 years ago.

In that parking lot, Munoz said, he realized for the first time that some people see him as an invader in the place he calls home.

As furor over immigration rises across the nation, many Hispanics say they are increasingly the targets of hostility in a state where they once felt welcome.

Some commentators and politicians concerned about illegal immigration routinely associate illegal immigrants with violence, disease and dependence on public resources. Immigrants and their advocates say the prevalence of such ideas has changed the way many Americans view Hispanic immigrants -- legal or illegal.

Discrimination complaints are increasing, and some Hispanic nonprofits are struggling to maintain their funding as major benefactors become more cautious about Hispanic causes. Hispanics say they feel that even public officials and law enforcement officers are inclined to see them in a negative light or treat them poorly.

This month, a state Highway Patrol trooper resigned after he was accused of abducting Hispanic women and making sexual advances toward them. One woman said he threatened her husband with immigration arrest. In May, it was revealed that a federal, Raleigh-based Drug Enforcement Administration agent humiliated a Hispanic suspect, who was a legal immigrant, by forcing him to pose for a picture wearing a sombrero and holding a Mexican flag.

Munoz, the lawyer, said he got no response from police when he reported being harassed in the parking lot. He said an officer told him the man's actions were not a crime.

"I was shaking that night," said Munoz, 41. "I have children who look Hispanic. I was afraid for what can happen to them."

Assumptions change

Ivan Parra, an immigrant from Colombia who heads the N.C. Latino Coalition in Durham, said he has watched stereotypes of Hispanics take a bad turn.

"A few years ago, there was the general idea that these folks are hardworking, they contribute to the economy, they go to church," Parra said.

Now, he said, the stereotype is of people who skirt taxes or belong to gangs. Parra said he does not deny that some immigrants commit crimes or cheat the system, but he said the actions of a few are beginning to color the perception of an entire group.

Marco Guerra, 48, a Raleigh auto mechanic who immigrated legally from Chile, said he was eating at a restaurant bar a few weeks ago when a man sat next to him.

"Right up front, he asked me, 'Are you a wetback?' " Guerra said.

A few weeks earlier, Guerra said, he walked into a public restroom. A young boy who was inside screamed, "Daddy, it's a Mexican, it's a Mexican," Guerra said.

"People look at me, and they just assume that I'm illegal," said Guerra, a U.S. citizen who left Chile in 1981.

Guerra said he has always suspected that people made assumptions about him because of his brown skin and accented English. Now, he said, people are giving voice to their assumptions.

Leonor Clavijo, a spokesperson for El Centro Hispano in Durham, said discrimination complaints used to be rare. Now, her group gets about one a week. She said she hears stories of disputes between neighbors -- about the placement of trash cans or other mundane issues -- that escalate into anti-immigrant slurs.

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