Dem lawmaker notifies police about Facebook threats

Staffers for Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) have reportedly notified Capitol Police about threats the lawmaker allegedly received from members of a right-wing group angry over his stance on immigration.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) first reported Friday that Gallego’s staffers had notified police about videos and Google Earth images that right-wing activists posted on Facebook and displayed on Facebook Live of the lawmaker’s family home in Arizona.

{mosads}Capitol Police did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill on Friday. The agency told SPLC they do not comment on existing investigations.

Christina Carr, Gallego’s spokeswoman, also did not respond immediately to a request for comment from The Hill.

The SPLC reports that members of the far-right Patriot Movement AZ (PMAZ) showed up outside Gallego’s gated house, where they displayed signs attacking the congressman for not supporting President Trump’s planned wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Ruben is a traitor to this country,” PMAZ founder Lesa Antone reportedly said near the end of the Facebook Live broadcast. “Ruben is a traitor to the American people. Ruben is a traitor to the people that elected him to office.”

The SPLC’s website refers to the PMAZ as an anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hate group.

According to the SPLC, Antone said she agreed with a caller on a radio show in December who said opponents of Trump’s immigration plan should be “hanged.”

The SPLC says Antone has defended her group, saying that the PMAZ is “definitely not a hate group.”