“I might have tacos when I go home, I'm not quite sure yet.”

A seemingly innocuous comment that would be appropriate for friendly office banter about Tuesday night dinner plans. Unless, you're East Haven, Connecticut's Mayor Joseph Maturo. After the arrest of four police officers in a racial profiling case  spanning several years and consisting of unwarranted traffic stops, arrests, and even jailhouse beatings, Maturo was asked what he would do for his town’s Latino community, and the above-mentioned statement was his response.

Upon hearing about Mayor Maturo’s comments, Reform Immigration for America (RI4A) took to their blog to express their condemnation of the Mayor’s comments and to urge supporters to join them in showing Maturo they would not stand for racial profiling and public displays of ignorance by elected officials. Supporters could stand up to Mayor Maturo and East Haven’s racial injustices by texting the word “TACO” to 69866.

Yesterday, after thousands of texts, tweets, and shares by supporters, RI4A, in partnership with Junta for Progressive Action, delivered 500 tacos to Mayor Maturo’s office. Although the Mayor issued a public statement apologizing to the town of East Haven and the Latino community for what he called his “insensitive and off-color comment,” supporters and members of RI4A do not believe that is enough.

For every text RI4A continues to receive, they will donate to fund a community dinner. They have issued an open invitation for this dinner to the mayor, urging him to begin an honest dialogue with the Latino community. Additionally, they have started a Change.org petition asking Mayor Maturo to replace the East Haven Chief of Police and send a clear message that racial profiling won't be tolerated.

More than 2,454 people have sent TACO to 69866. People can also join the conversation and share materials through RI4A’s #tacogate hashtag on Twitter.

Fission Strategy would like to commend RI4A for their innovative and interactive methods in denouncing this case of racial insensitivity. Fission works closely with RI4A on strategy and site development including during the then-impending House of Representatives vote on the DREAM Act in 2011. Fission helped to target 15 key undecided Representatives and to apply public pressure via Twitter outreach. We continue to be proud to work for immigration reform with clients like MomsRising, Define American and UUA.

For more information, please RI4A’s blog post about the incident here.

Update: The East Haven police chief has stepped down today after 15,000 people signed the Change.org petition. Nearly 6,000 people have now sent TACO to 69866.

Photo credit: The New Haven Independent, Melissa Bailey photographer