Mass. Man Charged With Immigration-Related Threat

A Massachusetts man who disliked a Florida state legislator’s policies on illegal immigration is under arrest for allegedly threatening the lawmaker and his family, the Naked Politics blog of the Miami Herald reports. Rep. Will Snyder of Stuart, Fla., said he received the threatening e-mail on Jan. 8, about an hour after the shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., that left a federal judge dead and a congresswoman gravely wounded.

Police in Northampton, Mass., have charged Manuel E. Pintado, 47 with two felonies in connection with an e-mail sent from a local Starbucks that objected to Snyder suggesting Arizona as a model for immigration law in Florida. According to a police affidavit, Pintado told investigators he wasn’t seriously planning to kill Snyder or his family, but “was glad the e-mail made him nervous.”

Snyder, a former Miami police officer, has said he supports bringing Arizona’s controversial identity checks to Florida but is consulting with the state legislature’s Hispanic caucus before introducing any bill. He said the e-mailed threat against him proves there are “extremists on both ends of the political spectrum.”