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Hundreds of far-right activists gathered in Portugal on Saturday for the annual “Remigration Summit” advocating for the mass deportation of immigrants. Former U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino and white nationalist leader Jared Taylor were VIP guests alongside elected officials from Germany and Spain’s far-right parties. In an interview ahead of the event, Bovino cited Nazi Germany’s lead general, Erwin Rommel, as an inspirational figure.

“Remigration is basically the policy response to the ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory,” says Charles R. Davis, a journalist based in Vienna, Austria. Davis explains “great replacement” as a theory that there is a “global elite plot, typically by Jews,” to replace white people in Europe and North America with immigrants. “It’s an argument for mass deportations,” not just of recently arrived immigrants, but of “those who were allowed in over the last hundred years who were not really, as they see it, European or American,” says Davis. “This is basically rooted in Nazi ideology.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: In Portugal, hundreds of far-right activists gathered Saturday for the annual “Remigration Summit” advocating for the mass deportation of immigrants. Former U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino and white nationalist leader Jared Taylor were VIP guests alongside elected officials from Germany’s far-right, anti-immigrant AfD party and Spain’s Vox. Other attendees included Stefano Forte, president of the New York Young Republican Club.

J.D. Vance Met With German Neo-Nazi Party Leader Alice Weidel

In an interview ahead of the event, Greg Bovino cited Nazi Germany’s lead general, Erwin Rommel, as an inspirational figure. At the summit, Bovino said, quote, “If there is inspiration gained from the U.S. Border Patrol model and method, then fantastic.”

AMY GOODMAN: Gregory Bovino led the Trump administration’s militarized immigration crackdowns in Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. Earlier this year, he appeared in Minneapolis wearing a long olive wool overcoat that some online observers likened to, quote, “a Nazi cosplay coat.” California Governor Gavin Newsom’s social media press account called it “Nazi-coded.”

Bovino was eventually removed from his position in January after immigration agents under his command killed 37-year-old VA nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Pretti was shot dead two weeks after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis.

During an interview outside the so-called Remigration Summit in Portugal, Bovino criticized the Trump administration.

GREGORY BOVINO: The base is not very happy now over what’s happening immigration-wise. They voted for mass deportations. Mass deportations are not occurring. There are no mass deportations occurring in the United States right now. So, those MAGA voters, those 80 million that came out to vote for him in the polls, are not happy campers right now.

GREGORY BOVINO: The base is not very happy now over what’s happening immigration-wise. They voted for mass deportations. Mass deportations are not occurring. There are no mass deportations occurring in the United States right now. So, those MAGA voters, those 80 million that came out to vote for him in the polls, are not happy campers right now.

AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Vienna, Austria, to speak with the reporter Charles Davis, who writes for The Guardian and also runs The Redoubt, where his new piece is headlined “Why did the press ignore a gathering of the world’s leading fascists?”

Charles, thanks so much for being with us. Why don’t you talk about what remigration is and the significance of Bovino being there?

CHARLES R. DAVIS: Yeah, so, remigration is basically the policy response to the “great replacement” conspiracy theory. And the great replacement conspiracy theory, as I think, unfortunately, a lot of your viewers will already know about, is the idea that there’s like a global elite plot, typically by Jews, to replace white Europeans and white North Americans with immigrants via mass migration. So, “remigration” was........

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