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Trump used his first presidential veto to stop legislation overruling his declaration of a national emergency to fund a wall at the southwestern border.

He was joined by Vice President Mike Pence, Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, and three sheriffs with ties to the anti-immigrant hate group Federation for American Immigration Reform聽(FAIR). These sheriffs include: Thomas Hodgson, , of Bristol County, Massachusetts, A.J. Louderback聽of Jackson County, Texas, and Mike Lewis of Wicomico County, Maryland.

FAIR, in its December 2005 鈥� January 2006 newsletter , 鈥淐reating coalitions with police and sheriff鈥檚 [sic] departments all across the country to confront the issues posed by mass immigration has been a key FAIR goal for many years.鈥�

The hate group realized these goals in 2011 when its staff met with sheriffs across the country.

鈥淲e identified sheriffs who expressed concerns about illegal immigration,鈥� its annual report read, adding that FAIR staff 鈥渕et with these sheriffs and their deputies, supplied them with a steady stream of information, established regular conference calls so they could share information and experiences, and invited them to come to Washington to meet with FAIR鈥檚 senior staff."

All three sheriffs 聽FAIR鈥檚 annual Hold Their Feet to the Fire聽media event Sept. 5 and 6, 2018. Coinciding with the conference, FAIR helped facilitate a gathering of including Hodgson, Louderback and Lewis, to meet with politicians in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 5. The sheriffs 聽with Reps. Steve King, R-Iowa, Andrew Biggs, R-Ariz., Clay Higgins, R-La., and Mo Brooks, R-Ala., before attending a meeting on immigration reform at the White House with President Trump and Vice President Pence.

At the roundtable discussion with Pence, Louderback for the expansion of 287(g). The , with a history of complaints of racial profiling and discrimination, allows law enforcement to partner with ICE to enforce federal immigration laws.

Louderback and Hodgson are well-known and outspoken allies聽of the anti-immigrant movement. Louderback has attended FAIR鈥檚 annual media event and has appeared with anti-immigrant hate group Center for Immigration Studies聽(CIS). In December 2014, FAIR helped 聽a trip for sheriffs around the country, including Louderback, to visit D.C. to speak out against actions taken by Obama to protect undocumented immigrants. In 2016, he participated in a CIS sponsored panel , 鈥淎 Case Study of How Flawed Immigration Policy Begets Gang Violence.鈥� In February 2018, Louderback joined聽Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at CIS, as a witness in a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Immigration and Border Security titled, 鈥淭he Effect of Sanctuary City Policies on the Ability to Combat the Opioid Epidemic.鈥�

Hodgson, during a radio interview at FAIR鈥檚 September 2018 media event, said the White House should use the Department of Motor Vehicles as a tool for immigration enforcement and for the arrest of any elected official who supports sanctuary city policies. In his January 2017 swearing-in speech, he discussed the border wall saying, 鈥淚 can think of no other project that would have such a positive impact on our inmates and our country than building this wall,鈥� and to send Bristol County inmates to the border as labor to aid in its construction.

Sherriff Mike Lewis, minutes before he appeared in the Oval Office for Trump鈥檚 veto, 聽on his personal Facebook page, 鈥淭his is not political propaganda. WITHOUT BORDER SECURITY, THERE IS NO HOMELAND SECURITY.鈥� Lewis, also met with Trump in September 2018 and told a DelmarvaNow reporter, 鈥淭he talks were good, and the ceremony was nice. It was very good to talk about immigration.鈥�

The anti-immigrant movement continues to gain positions and clout聽in this administration. Earlier this month, Trump cited聽an erroneous report by FAIR claiming 鈥渋llegal aliens are incarcerated at three times the rate of legal residents,鈥� at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

FAIR and CIS were founded听产测 John Tanton, the racist architect of the modern anti-immigrant movement who has white nationalist beliefs. Tanton has written that to maintain American culture, 鈥渁 European-American majority鈥� is required, a sentiment echoed in the manifesto posted by the New Zealand killer.

ABC senior national correspondent Terry Morgan 聽to ask Trump, who signed the veto the day after the Christchurch mosque shootings聽in which 50 Muslims were killed, 鈥淒o you see white nationalism as a rising threat around the world?鈥�

Flanked by the immigration hardliners celebrating the veto, Trump deflected connecting a rise in white nationalism to deadly violence. 鈥淚 don鈥檛. I don鈥檛 really. I think it鈥檚 a small group of people who have very, very serious problems. 鈥� But it鈥檚 certainly a terrible thing.鈥�

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