Greg Bovino was the star of the European Migration Conference.

On Saturday morning, hundreds of right-wing extremists and legislators from all over Europe gathered in front of a conference center in the central Portuguese town of Figueira da Foz, a group of half dozen men marched into identical uniforms of Khaki-colored Chinos, dark blue shirts and sunglasses on the parking lot. On the reverse of their jackets, some wore the red-blue circular emblem of Patriot Front, the US-American white-supremacist group, which was founded following the Unite the Right 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, and is well known to march with masks in large numbers and to target left events. When WIRED asked one of the men whether they were members of the group, he said “Yes”. This group was just one aspect of the flood of American extreme right-wing figures who travelled thousands of kilometres to participate in the Remigration Summit, a conference south of Porto, where European politicians and hundreds of others took part in discussing remigration, a racist, far-right European plan for the expulsion of minorities and immigrants from Western nations. The prominent white racist Jared Taylor, the president of the New York Young Republican Club Stefano Forte and Greg Bovino, the former border guard, the immigrant communities in Minneapolis and Chicago were terrorized. Bovino said that he had been there to establish closer links with European right-wing groups, and claimed that remigration in the United States is already underway, although not fast enough. “Last year there was indeed a remigration [in the USA] ... but [they] still have a long way ahead,” said Bovino on Saturday opposite WIRED. He then criticised those who are currently leading the government's deportation efforts, including the Minister for Internal Security Markwayne Mullin. President Donald Trump “uses a little better advice, and Mullin is a great guy, a great plumber, there is no doubt about it,” said Bovino. “It could probably fix a leaky tap, but hundreds of millions of illegal immigrants are not a leaky tap.” (Mullin previously operated a plumber company.)

Remigration is a policy that has gained importance in Europe over the past five years, especially thanks to the efforts of the conference organizer Martin Sellner, a former member of a Neonazi group, who founded Austria’s far-right identity movement and was called “Pate of Remigration” during the event. According to the plan that Sellner published on his website, remigration would ultimately include not only the deportation of illegal immigrants in a country, but also the citizens who have not adapted to the cultures and traditions of the country. The concept was adopted by extreme right-wing political parties such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Vox in Spain, as Sellner has successfully established close links with extreme right-wing parties throughout Europe. At the event there were some elected legislators who are committed to remigration. In recent years, the concept has found its way across the Atlantic, where Trump and his government have apparently adopted the idea by setting up an office for remigration in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and promoting the concept of social media. Cooperation seemed to be the A and O at Sellner's conference where Americans travelled to Europe to learn from their right colleagues, to exchange information and to establish contacts with extreme right activists, extremist groups and political parties. Shortly before the beginning of the conference, the media, including WIRED, were informed that they should not participate and instead were banned into a tent in the parking lot equipped with a small table, a handful of chairs and a single iPad where the speeches were streamed from the inside. The organizers said that the decision had been taken to protect the identity of some participants who could lose their job if they were reported as participants in the event. (These participants, who watched WIRED when entering the event, seemed to be mostly young white men, most of whom wore almost identical clothes: tight chinos, naked ankles and fresh white shirts.)

Forte was one of the first speakers at the event. In addition to the New York Young Republican Club, Forte is also managing director of the 1776 Project PAC, which has funded parental rights candidates for school council elections in Pennsylvania and Texas. In his speech, Forte referred to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani as “anti-American, radical-Islamic immigrant master”. Forte told the press that he did not speak for the Trump administration, but in the same breath spoke of Trump supporting extreme right-wing leaders in Europe. “When we come abroad and talk about foreign policy, the president will make his decisions,” says Forte. “It is obvious that we want a reorganization of Europe in the modern age, because Europe is currently not strong and it needs new leaders.”

While Forte refused to specifically say what kind of immigrants he would like to send back, Jared Taylor, who has been a leading person in the American community of white racists for decades, expressed himself more clearly. “We were a country that was 90 percent European. Now white people are on their way to the minority,” Taylor says to WIRED. “There are political parties here in Europe that are called extreme right and they are quite clear. They want their nation to be as it once was... and that is impossible if they let in too many Muslims, Africans, Central Americans... Nothing is more natural, healthier and moral than the desire to remain Lord in his own house.”

Trump used the word remigration sparingly, but he used it. In June and July 2025 Trump mentioned the concept of remigration on his platform Truth Social three times and brought him into contact with mass deportations in the USA. “It is called “REMIGRATION” and it will be AMERICA WIEDER GROSS MACHEN,” Trump wrote in a post from July 4 on Truth Social. Trump's action has an impact, especially among the participants of this conference. “If the word is acknowledged by the President of a Great Power, it can no longer be said that it is marginal,” said Jean-Yves Le Gallou, a former member of the European Parliament for French extreme rights under Jean-Marie Le Pen, against Politico at the event. A member of the Patriot Front, with whom WIRED spoke, refused to say why the members of the group participated in the conference. Although the group is based in the USA, it is closely linked to Europe via the Active Club network, which promotes a white-nationalist ideology under the cover of fitness courses. According to a 2025 Global Project Against Hate and Extremism report, the movement is a transnational network consisting of at least 187 local associations in 27 countries, including organisations in more than a dozen European countries. “With the support of the Trump administration, American and European extremists believe that the right time for international institutional cooperation has come to put this ethnic cleansing plan into effect,” says Wendy Via, co-founder and president of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, against WIRED. “And that Gregory Bovino, whose agents killed two American citizens, speaks at the Remigration Summit, shows that European extremists regard the United States as proof that remigration, no matter how violent, is possible.”

Many of the speakers and participants with whom WIRED spoke during the event had different interpretations of what remigration meant, but Bovino said he was clear about the meaning: “Assimilation”, says Bovino and holds an orange notebook in his hand, on whose front a sticker of himself and his former X-hand is to be seen. “Are you willing to adapt to the culture of the United States? If not, don’t come.”

After talking to the press, Bovino went in and was greeted as a hero who was greeted on stage with “USA, USA, USA”. Bovino announced that remigration is the most important topic of our lives. He asked the listeners to learn from the Trump administration and to focus on strategic planning, combating mainstream media and dealing with legislators who do not agree with your world view. “Europe is at our heart, especially on this issue. This also connects us,” said Bovino. “Use us. Many of you have my phone number. I am just a phone call away and would like to make sure that these lessons are not learned a second time.”

A person who accepted Bovino's offer was Kay Gottschalk, a German MEP and co-founder of the AfD, the reporters said he spoke with Bovino and invited him to a speech in the German Bundestag. Bovino did not wear his infamous trench coat (which the Californian Governor Gavin Newsom referred to as “Nazi-marked”), but he was shown on pictures on stage as he wore him, and he promised to the present that he would come back and dress the coat if they were to completely implement the remigration. “I will make you a deal, Europe. We are driving forward this remigration in Europe with full gas, I will pull out this trench coat and carry it on European soil,” said Bovino. The crowd broke out in applause. This is an edition of the Inner Loop newsletter by Hugo Lowell. Read previous newsletter here.