Latino teenagers in Georgia getting texts saying they are "set to be deported" by immigration authorities. A lesbian business owner receiving messages telling her she's been assigned to an “LGB re-education camp” in Las Vegas. Immigrant families afraid to report the text messages to authorities.
Members of the Hispanic and LGBTQ communities are being targeted with these kinds of disturbing text messages by people hiding behind anonymous phone numbers.
Soon after Donald Trump’s presidential election victory, the FBI and the Department of Justice started receiving numerous reports of racist text messages being sent to Black Americans, telling them they had been selected to pick cotton "at the nearest plantation." Now, authorities are investigating cases in which other groups of people are reportedly getting text messages saying they have been "selected for deportation or to report to a re-education camp."
Santiago Marquez, of the Latin American Association, a Latino advocacy group in Georgia, said he received phone calls on Monday morning from three concerned parents in his community who had heard about the threatening texts in the news and said their children had received the same messages. Santiago said the students who got the texts are in middle school and high school.
“It’s very easy to panic when you get a message like that,” Santiago said.
The language of the text messages sent to these students were not identical, but they all referenced deportations and actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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According to a screenshot of one of the texts shared with NBC News, one of the messages reads, "You have been one of the selected immigrants that is set to be deported." The text continued, "Our Executive ICE team will come and get you in a Brown Van."
An ICE spokesperson told NBC News that these text messages are not from the agency. ICE does not send "random text messages to people," the spokesperson said in a phone interview. "Sending text messages in the blind is not how us Immigration Customs Enforcement operates. We do targeted enforcements."
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Diana Brier, a 41-year-old lesbian, received a text message on Nov. 10 telling her to check in to Nellis Air Force Base in southern Nevada on Inauguration Day for an eight-week “LGB re-education camp,” according to a screenshot of the message the former Las Vegas resident shared with NBC News.
“Your new President, Donald J. Trump, looks forward to assisting you in becoming a mentally and emotionally stable member of society by eliminating lifestyles that have been detrimental to our American way of life through re-education,” the text reads. “Following the initial eight week period, those interned in the eight week LGB camp will be eligible for release dependent upon your swearing of allegiance to your president, Donald J Trump, and your oath to live a lifestyle befitting of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
The message adds that lesbian, gay and bisexual people must “reproduce birthing healthy white Christian children” or be sent to transgender “work camps” for two years to life. Transgender people, the text states, will be sent to work camps indefinitely.
A spokesperson from Trump’s transition team told NBC News in an email, "We have absolutely nothing to do with these text messages."
The Air Force did not respond to requests for comment.
Brier, who is a wine and cheese entrepreneur, said she was initially spooked by the texts. But she said she’s determined to not let them weigh her down.
“When I open my business in Colorado, it will have Pride flags in the window. And if those get smashed out because I’m gay, I will replace the windows, and then I will replace the Pride flags,” she said. “Because wherever I go, I’m just going to create a safe space for my community because it’s what I’ve always done, and it’s what I always will do.”
Brier said she spoke with a Las Vegas FBI agent on Wednesday after her friend reported the text to the bureau.
The agent did not know where the text came from, if other LGBTQ people in the Las Vegas-area were being targeted, or if the text originated from the same person or group targeting Blacks and Latinos, according to Brier. She said the FBI advised her to spread the word about her story to others in the LGBTQ community and encourage others to speak out.
Brier said this is the first time in her life she has been harassed because of her sexuality, and, she added, she's worried it won’t be the last because of Trump’s return to the White House.
“Every marginalized population just seems like they’re going to be very embattled for quite some time,” she said. “I really just want the community to know that it’s OK to report these."
'Really difficult'
Still, many members of Latino immigrant families who have received these kinds of messages may be hesitant to report it to authorities, said Gilda Pedraza, executive director of the Latino Community Fund Georgia.
"I don't know that we will ever see significant reporting of these hate messages and texts because people are going to be afraid to report it," worried that police may assume they're undocumented, Pedraza said.
Pedraza said she spoke with two families that have relatives with various types of immigration status that received the messages. For them the uncertainty feels real, considering that Trump campaigned on the promise of mass deportations.
"The overwhelming feeling is uncertainty and fear of what could be true, what could happen and how to recognize what's the difference between a threat and like a real thing," Pedraza said. "It's really difficult."
Marquez, from the advocacy group in Georgia, encouraged families who may feel afraid to say anything to start by talking to school officials or reporting what they have experienced to community leaders they trust.
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