New Wave of Offensive Texts Targets Hispanic and L.G.B.T.Q. People

The F.B.I. is investigating messages that told people they would be deported or transported to a “re-education camp.” They came after racist texts were sent to Black people.

A wave of offensive text messages and emails has gone out to Hispanic and L.G.B.T.Q. people in recent days, according to the F.B.I., coming on the heels of a barrage of racist texts that were sent to Black people in the wake of the election.

The F.B.I. said in a statement on Friday that some recipients of the latest messages were told they had been selected for deportation. Others were instructed to report to a “re-education camp” for L.G.B.T.Q. people, the agency said, an apparent reference to conversion therapy or other coercive practices aimed at altering a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

The messages were the latest in a series of offensive content that stared popping up just hours after the presidential race was called for Donald J. Trump the morning after Election Day.

Black people in over a dozen states reported receiving texts that addressed them by name, told them they had been selected to “pick cotton” and ordered them to report for slavery. Some of the messages also made a reference to Mr. Trump — some even claimed to be from his administration — but a spokesman for his campaign said it had “absolutely nothing to do with these text messages.”

Misogynistic social media posts also surged in the aftermath of the election, with phrases like “your body, my choice” and “get back to the kitchen” proliferating online.

Diana Brier, 41, who identifies as lesbian, said she was shocked after receiving one of the texts targeting L.G.B.T.Q. people last Sunday. The message she got referred to an executive order and instructed her to check in to be transported to an undisclosed location for an “LGB re-education camp.” It also mentioned Mr. Trump and the date of his inauguration.

Ms. Brier said the specificity of the message had unsettled her. While she knew it was not real, she said it made her worry about what could happen to L.G.B.T.Q. people under the new Trump administration.

“The timing is not a coincidence,” Ms. Brier said, referring to when the message arrived and what it said. “There’s a lot of concern among my queer friends about what’s going to happen to us.”

The F.B.I. did not clarify how widespread the recent round of messages was or how the senders got the recipients’ identities. It was also unclear whether the messages came from the same source as the texts that targeted Black people.

Federal authorities are investigating the messages. The F.B.I. said it has not received reports of any violent acts related to them. Its press office said on Sunday that it did not have more information to release.

Roman Palomares, the national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, strongly condemned the latest volley of messages, which he said fueled unease and panic at a time of heightened fear in the Latino community about mass deportation. Mr. Trump had pledged in his campaign to carry out the largest deportation effort in the country’s history of people who crossed the border illegally.

In an interview, Mr. Palomares called the messages “scare tactics.”

“But even though they may not be legitimate or credible, people do believe them sometimes,” he said.

Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, an L.G.B.T.Q. civil rights group, said in a statement that the hateful rhetoric could have real-life consequences.

“But hate will not silence us,” she said.

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