Immigration group receives death, bomb threats

SILVER SPRING, Md. - Recent threats of violence directed at a local immigrant advocacy group are now under investigation in Maryland.

CASA de Maryland in Silver Spring has written a letter to Attorney General Doug Gansler detailing phone, email and text messages the organization has received riddled with racial intolerance.

"We can have disagreements about policy issues, but people who resort to violence are un-American," says Reverend Simon Bautista, CASA's board vice president. "My immediate reaction was surprise, and I couldn't believe I was listening to what I heard."

And while CASA acknowledges it is the frequent recipient of harassing and threatening messages, officials say there has been a dramatic increase in the severity in recent months.

A media specialist for CASA received the following phone call: "You should be scared and not surprised when all your places start to blow up in pieces."

Another phone message was directed at a CASA board member: "Don't be surprised when there's a {expletive} bullet in the back of your {expletive} brain for being so stupid and helping illegals."

This message was left on CASA's toll-free telephone line: "Don't be surprised if somebody blows your {expletive} facility up, you {expletive} piece of {expletive}."

On March 9, CASA's media specialist received the following email: "You people should be tried for treason." Another on April 2 said CASA "should be treated like any organized crime organization."

Montgomery County Police Capt. David Gillespie says the FBI is involved in the investigation. At the moment, the threats are not considered hate crimes.

"We have to look at these based on the facts that are there, and not read further into it. Until we are able to interview these people and find out the motive, then that may change things."

CASA was created in 1985 to help Central Americans arriving to the D.C. area. It runs five Maryland day-labor centers where workers can gather while waiting to be picked up for jobs.

(Copyright 2008 by WTOP Radio. All Rights Reserved.)