Greg Bovino: “Immigration and remigration, mass deportations, are the number one issue for the preservation of our culture, the preservation of our society, our values, our customs, our beliefs”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

In the clip below, former Border Patrol official Greg Bovino was speaking to Keith Woods, who NBC has called a “white nationalist.” Politico reported on Bovino's attendance at the “Remigration Summit” in Portugal:

European far-right activists who advocate the mass deportation of immigrants and their descendants are getting a boost from the Trump administration’s embrace of their key catchword: remigration.

Some 500 activists and influencers gathered south of Porto on Saturday to discuss the concept, once a fringe term only whispered in far-right circles. The United States’ former Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino and American white nationalist Jared Taylor were VIP guests at the tightly controlled event, which also included elected officials from Spain’s Vox and Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) parties.

Other leading European far-right parties, most prominently France’s National Rally, have avoided the term or rejected the policy as too extreme because it targets migrants based on their ethnicity or religion. But U.S. President Donald Trump’s use of the word and the American State Department’s pledge to create an office for remigration put wind in the sails of longtime advocates of the policy in Europe.

Media Matters has previously written about “remigration” — a term associated with forced migration, mass deportations, and ethnic cleansing.

“Remigration” refers to a far-right policy that calls for “returning immigrants to their native lands in what amounts to a soft-style ethnic cleansing” by forcibly deporting non-white immigrants. According to The Washington Post, the term was popularized by far-right Austrian political activist Martin Sellner, who has called to “end the migrant invasion of America” and praised Trump for invoking the term during the 2024 presidential campaign. Some in the far right have adopted the term, often invoking the so-called “great replacement” conspiracy theory and suggesting remigration as a way maintain a white majority.

As Politico notes, the summit Bovino attended was “co-organized” by Sellner.

From a video uploaded to Telegram on June 1, 2026

KEITH WOODS: So you're here in Europe at the Remigration Summit. I guess just what's your thoughts on the movement here in Europe for, you know, this term remigration that's entered into popular consciousness now. Do you see movements in Europe that make you optimistic here?

GREG BOVINO: This is the most exciting movement that I've seen in probably my entire life because immigration and remigration, mass deportations, are the number one issue for the preservation of our culture, the preservation of our society, our values, our customs, our beliefs. This is the number one issue that affects all of that. It affects our very beings in all of Europe. So, the fact that this movement is growing, it's in its beginning stages now, but you can tell there's a certain energy to this movement. The movement spans across the ocean into the United States and the interesting thing is the problems are the same problems with the same solutions.

I think that's why we are all very interested in what's happening in Europe, whereas Europe conversely was interested in what was happening in the United States with our mass deportation campaign. So this is exciting. A lot of young folks are now getting involved. They're doing their part for — to make their countries safer, better, more cultural — preserving the culture of their countries. That's exciting.