MCPS-approved group threatened to stalk children of critics

A leader of an MCPS-endorsed activist group has threatened to stalk the children of political opponents in Montgomery County.

The executive director Casa de Maryland, a Silver Spring-based organizer of the April 10 illegal immigration rally in Washington, DC, threatened to stalk MCPS children whose parents oppose the organization's political agenda.

"We are going to picket their houses, and the schools of their kids and go to their work. If they are going to do this to us, we are going to respond in the same way, to let people know their neighbors are extremists, that they are anti-immigrant. They are going to hear from us," said Casa de Maryland Executive Director Gustavo Torres.

Asked for comment, Montgomery County Council President George Leventhal on March 7 criticized Torres' threat to picket residents homes and their children's schools as "totally uncalled for and wholly inappropriate."

But, Leventhal added, Torres said he was sorry and the group does good work, so the county should continue to fund and support Casa de Maryland nevertheless.

Torres accompanied County Executive Doug Duncan on his 2005 trip to El Salvador.