Leaders of a Maryland immigrant advocacy group that operates day labor centers say they may seek security officers for their offices in response to recent death and bomb threats.
Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA de Maryland, says his organization will meet with local Jewish groups and Planned Parenthood chapters to seek advice on how to ensure the safety of employees.
“We constantly receive e-mails and phone calls in which we’re accused of being traitors and anti-American,” CASA spokesman Mario Quiroz said, adding that security officers would be a last resort.
Torres said the group began receiving an abnormally high number of harassing messages after they released a report in early May that said a new Frederick County program that allows sheriff’s deputies to check immigration status of all detained individuals would cost the county $3.2 million.
Montgomery police and fire officials are investigating threats from two weekends ago, in which a male caller threatened to “blow up” CASA offices in a phone call to Quiroz and a voice mail system at their new Frederick office. A male voice left a third message with the Rev. Simon Bautista, the vice president of CASA’s board of directors, warning of a bullets to his brain for “helping illegals.”
