After Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) called for a boycott of his own state should the GOP’s immigrant crackdown bill become law, an unnamed individual allegedly threatened on Friday to blow up his Tucson office and murder his staff, according to published reports.

In response, Grijalva announced the closure of his offices in Tucson and Yuma later that night. While they are expected to reopen on Monday and the FBI is looking into the alleged threat, to Democrats across Arizona the message is abundantly clear: do not speak out against the state’s immigration crackdown, or else.

ADVERTISEMENT

The congressman had in recent days sparked a political firestorm by calling on businesses and organizations to boycott his state over its recently-passed immigration reforms that, in the name of cracking down on illegal Mexican immigration, empowers authorities to detain and interrogate anyone based solely on the officer’s judgement of behavior and appearance.

Adam Sarvana, a spokesman for Rep.Grijalva, told The Arizona Daily Star that another man who called twice “threatened to go down there and blow everyone’s brains out then go to the border to shoot Mexicans.”

Though the congressman’s offices were closed, he still went ahead with an anti-immigration crackdown rally in Tucson. It reportedly attracted about 250 supporters, according to the Star.

“White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that could mean the Justice Department might look into potential ‘civil rights violations’ against ‘legal residents’ and citizens,” Politico reported.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, a Republican, signed the bill on Friday. President Obama criticized the move as “misguided.”

ADVERTISEMENT

This video was published on Friday, April 23, 2010 by AZFamily.com.