The Guardian reports:

Neo-Nazi groups and the online far right are latching on to the anti-immigration rhetoric coming from Donald Trump’s campaign for the White House in an effort to recruit new supporters and spread their extremism to broader audiences.

After the Republican national convention in July, where supporters waved “MASS DEPORTATION NOW!” placards, it became clear that Trump’s xenophobia has become part of the Republican establishment. Upon his return to X, formerly known as Twitter, Trump released a stream of images targeting Vice-President Kamala Harris’s stance on the border and immigration.

Among them were memes implying the Democrats will bring rapists into the country and a 2012 photo of men in Karachi, Pakistan, burning an American flag with the caption: “Meet your neighbors […] IF KAMALA WINS.”

In tandem with the Trump campaign’s sloganeering, known figures on the far right and their online denizens are seizing on the open hatred of immigrants from the top Republican and going even more public with their brand of activism.

“At this point, demonizing and lying about immigrants is part and parcel of the far-right scene and a major part of its anti-immigrant messaging,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), an extremism watchdog organization. “Non-white immigrants and refugees are enemy number one for the far-right.”

Beirich warned the current climate is even more dangerous as she’s seeing ideologies, once the sole domain of fringe neo-Nazis, being “mainstreamed by political figures”.

For example, two separate hate groups recently descended on Springfield, Ohio, rallying with masks and uniforms and threatening the approximately 20,000 Haitian immigrants that have arrived in the town since the pandemic. In 2023, tensions among local residents flared up after a bus crash involving a Haitian driver helped make the Rust-belt town a flashpoint in anti-immigration debates.

In August, Blood Tribe, a neo-Nazi group led by ex-US marine Christopher Pohlhaus, marched in Springfield waving swastika flags (with at least two members carrying rifles) and yelling anti-Black and racist epithets at a jazz festival.

Then, in early September, one of its leaders was granted time to speak at a town forum with local politicians.

“I’ve come to bring a word of warning,” said the leader, speaking under a racist pseudonym. He is believed to be the second-in-command of Blood Tribe, after Pohlhaus, and also a former marine. “Stop what you’re doing before it’s too late. Crime and savagery will only increase with every Haitian you bring in.”

The leader then continued, directly threatening local Haitian residents. He was booted from the meeting. [Continue reading…]