The day after East Haven Mayor Joe Maturo made his controversial "tacos" comment, a grassroots immigration reform group visited his office and delivered hundreds of tacos in response.
By now, you are probably aware of the comments that put East Haven in the national spotlight.
Hours after several members of the police department were arrested, accused of racial profiling, a reporter from PIX asked the mayor what he was doing for the Latino community.
"I might have tacos when I go home, I'm not quite sure yet," Maturo said, in part. He apologized on Wednesday afternoon, but the backlash had already begin.
In response to the comments, Reform Immigration FOR America launched a Twitter campaign, promising to send the mayor one taco for every text it received with the word "TACO."
As of 10 p.m., the group had received more than 2,000 text messages, they posted on Twitter. They delivered the first wave of about 500 tacos on Thursday.
The organization left one taco with mayor office and the rest are being brought to the a local soup kitchen.
Local
The mayor's office released a statement saying that they have arranged to have the tacos donated to local soup kitchens.
Reform Immigration FOR America says, via Twitter, that they coordinated with the soup kitchen.
Maturo was not there when the delivery was made. He had a prior commitment in Hartford at 2 p.m., but his office did issue a statement:
“The abundance of tacos that we receive today underscores the importance of the issues currently facing the town of East Haven and highlights the need for the town to continue the process of healing and reform that I initiated immediately upon taking office through the efforts of the towns newly constituted LEARN committee,” Maturo said in a written statement.
“The events of the past few days have focused our town and my administration on the need to deal sensitively and compassionately with the challenges currently facing our town,” the statement said. “We will continue to address those challenges while also striving to provide the services our residents come to expect .”
