DALLAS -- A Dallas-based pizza chain that has restaurants here in the Valley has been hit with death threats and hate mail after offering to accept Mexican pesos.

Pizza Patron says it wasn't trying to inject itself into a larger political debate about illegal immigration.

The company this week posted signs in Spanish saying pesos would be accepted at its 59 stores in Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and California. The company has eight stores in metropolitan Phoenix.

Pizza Patron spokesman Andy Gamm says the company is just trying to sell more pizza to its customers -- 60 percent of whom are Hispanic.

Wal-Mart, HEB supermarkets and some other U.S. businesses in towns along the Mexican border accept pesos.

The company has received hundreds of e-mails, some supportive -- but most are critical.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)