A racist letter sent anonymously to a Longmont family last week has spotlighted community fears that Donald Trump’s administration has emboldened messages of discrimination in the months since his election.

The letter reads, “You and your family should not be in this white neighborhood. You and your brown boys are not welcome. Go back where you came from. Your (sic) in Trump’s country now. #MAGA.” The hashtag stands for “Make America Great Again,” President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan.

Longmont police plan to fingerprint a letter to potentially track down the person who mailed the message, Cmdr. Joel Post said.

He said the letter was Denver postmarked April 20 and that the family received it Wednesday. He said police were called that night.

“It doesn’t help that the administration speaks to this manner,” Daniel Hernandez, whose family received the letter, said Monday. “This hasn’t truly gone away, and this isn’t necessarily a new world. It’s been there. We’re living at a time where people feel that it’s OK to now say these things, and it’s not.”

Post said police are keeping an eye on the family’s house in Longmont’s Historic Westside neighborhood, as well as the neighborhood school their children attend.

“I grew up with this,” said Hernandez, who lived in Dallas and is now a schoolteacher in Longmont. “This is not the first time I’ve been told this. This was years of abuse, and it’s my message to all the students out there to stand up for each other and don’t let this happen to somebody else.”

On Sunday, the Boulder chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice shared the letter on social media and through email.

The group also shared the victim’s message: “Today (my husband) and I received our first hate mail. The police took it in as evidence, so luckily the boys will not stumble upon it.”

Her message continues with, “We do not want them to know about this letter, so please, DO NOT mention it to them. We recognize that posting this and asking for that is a little tricky, but we felt strongly that our community needs to be informed. This is a nation-wide problem that has landed squarely on top of us.

“This is not the America I know. This is not the America my children will grow up in. And this is absolutely NOT how to ‘make America great again.'”

Marissa Tafura, a community organizer with Showing Up for Racial Justice, said Monday that the group is planning anti-racism work in Longmont in response to the letter.

“We view this an opportunity to just really emphasize that these acts of racist hate do not represent the Longmont community,” she said. “Many people in the Longmont community have come forward with a lot of support for the family.

The group Longmont Bike Night posted on Facebook on Friday that its May 17 ride will be held in support of the family.

The post encourages riders to wear black shirts to represent solidarity and the belief that “Longmont should be a place of tolerance and acceptance, not a place of discrimination and hate.”

The post also said that the family is a longtime Bike Night family, who have participated since the beginning.

“Hatred is not a family value,” the post reads. “Bigotry should never be tolerated anywhere at any time. Racism, discrimination, and hate speech should be called out whenever possible.”

This month, the Longmont City Council could debate whether they consider a proposal to officially designate Longmont a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants after years of not taking a stance on the issue.

At the end of a meeting in April, the council heard from immigration activists asking that the city be designated a sanctuary city and offer the same protections to its undocumented and documented immigrant residents that it provides to the community’s U.S. citizens.

Last December, the council adopted a resolution reaffirming constitutional rights and confirming “our community values as a safe, healthy, respectful and welcoming community with fair opportunities for all residents to live, work and play in Longmont” due to the increased anxiety surrounding the new president’s views on immigration.

Earlier this year, signs popped up in front of Longmont houses — including the family’s house — reading, “No matter where you are from, we’re glad you’re our neighbor,” in Spanish, English and Arabic.

“I”m just concerned,” Hernandez said of his emotions moving forward. “Anger is not going to help, fighting back with hate is not going to help, but I’m concerned that people need to understand this still exists.

“I think the biggest message we want to send is that this is alive, this is happening and we have got to teach the next generation that this is not OK.”

Amelia Arvesen: 303-684-5212, arvesena@times-call.com or twitter.com/ameliaarvesen

Anthony Hahn: 303-473-1422, hahna@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/_anthonyhahn