Greg Bovino was the star at the European Migration Conference

On Saturday morning, As hundreds of far-right activists and lawmakers from across Europe gathered outside a convention center in the central Portuguese city of Figueira da Foz, a group of six men wearing identical uniforms of khaki pants, dark blue T-shirts and sunglasses walked into the parking lot.

On the lapels of their jackets, some wore the circular red and blue logo National FrontThe US white supremacist group was formed in the wake of the 2017 Unite the Right march in Charlottesville, Virginia, known for marching in large numbers while wearing masks and targeting left-wing events. When WIRED asked one of the men if they were a member of the group, he said yes.

The group was just one aspect of a flood of far-right American figures who traveled thousands of miles to attend the Repatriation Summit, a conference south of Porto that brought together European political leaders and hundreds of others to discuss the matter. Re-immigrationa racist, far-right European plan to expel minorities and immigrants from Western countries.

Prominent white supremacist Jared Taylor, President of the Young Republican Club of New York Stefano Forteand Greg Bovinoformer border guard commander who Intimidation of immigrant communities In Minneapolis and Chicago, they were all in attendance.

Bovino said he was there to establish closer ties with European right-wing groups, and claimed that remigration was already underway in the United States, although it was not happening quickly enough.

“Over the past year, there have already been re-migrations (in the United States) … but they have a long way to go,” Bovino told WIRED on Saturday. He then criticized the leaders now running the administration’s deportation efforts, including Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullen. Bovino said President Donald Trump “needs a little better advice, and Mullen is a great guy, a great plumber, there’s no doubt about that.” “Maybe he can fix a leaky faucet, but a hundred million illegal aliens doesn’t constitute a leaky faucet.” (Mullen previously ran a plumbing company.)

Remigration is a policy that has gained significant prominence in Europe over the past five years, thanks mainly to the efforts of conference organizer Martin Sellner, a former member of the neo-Nazi group who founded the far-right Identity movement in Austria, and who was referred to as the “godfather of remigration” during the event.

Re-migration according to the Sellner plan Posted on their websitewill ultimately remove not only illegal immigrants in a country, but also citizens who have not assimilated the country’s cultures and traditions. This concept has been adopted by far-right political parties such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Vox in Spain, where Sellner has succeeded in establishing close ties with far-right parties across Europe. Some elected lawmakers who support bringing back immigration spoke at the event.

In recent years, the concept has made its way across the Atlantic, where Trump and his administration appear to have caught on I embraced the idea,preparation Immigration Office within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs And promote the concept on social media.

Cooperation seemed to be the name of the game at the Sellner conference, as Americans went to Europe to learn from their right-wing counterparts, exchange information, and establish contacts with far-right activists, extremist groups, and political parties.

Just before the conference began, media outlets, including WIRED, were informed that they would not be allowed to attend, and were instead moved to a tent in the parking lot that contained a small table, a handful of chairs, and a single iPad where speeches were broadcast from inside. Organizers said the decision was made to protect the identities of some attendees who could lose their jobs if their attendance at the event is reported. (Those attendees, whom WIRED saw entering the event, appeared to be largely young white men, most wearing nearly identical outfits of skinny chinos, bare ankles, and crisp white T-shirts.)