Extremist anti-immigration group’s video of Ruben Gallego’s home reported to Capitol Police
The Southern Poverty Law Center alerted Gallego’s office to the post
A fringe far-right group has been reported to U.S. Capitol Police for posting photos of Rep. Ruben Gallego’s home on social media and filming outside of his neighborhood.
The Southern Poverty Law Center alerted Gallego’s office to the posts, citing the group’s violent rhetoric and ties to white supremacists as reasons for concern.
Three members of the Patriot Movement AZ, an extreme anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim advocacy group active in Arizona and Southern California, posted a video to Facebook Wednesday filmed outside of Gallego’s gated neighborhood mocking the congressman for opposing a border wall.
“How are we going to get all of these asylum seekers packed into Ruben’s neighborhood?” founder Lesa Antone said in the video. The video runs 32 minutes long and had roughly 73,000 views.
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Patriot Movement AZ opposes offering sanctuary to asylum seekers, and it has in recent weeks sowed fear at churches providing shelter to migrant families released by U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement, according to the Arizona Republic.
Antone, who filmed the video outside Gallego’s home, often spouts hateful rhetoric, including fantasies about killing immigrants, according to the SPLC.
And in late December when a guest on her radio show argued for violence against members of Congress who oppose a border wall — saying that “those traitors in D.C. should all be hanged” — Antone appeared to agree, praising the caller.
Gallego is the son of Latino immigrants and his 7th District encompasses a large Latino community. He has been a fierce critic of President Donald Trump on the issue of immigration, and has argued that the president has pushed for a border wall not for national security, but in order to stoke “the racial fears and anxiety he has drummed up and amplified to rally his base.”
Members of Patriot Movement AZ also posted images of Gallego’s home captured from Google Street View on Twitter, but the posts have since been deleted, the Arizona Republic reported.
Christina Carr, a spokeswoman for Gallego, confirmed to the paper his office had reported the posts to the U.S. Capitol Police.
The actions of the group were timed to coincide with similar stunts outside the residences of other Democratic politicians, including U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to the SPLC.