More than a dozen members of a white nationalist group hiked up the hill to the University of Utah’s block U last weekend, carrying an anti-immigration banner and blue and red flares, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Identity Evropa, a hate group claimed responsibility for the stunt on Twitter on Saturday, where members held the banner reading “STOP THE INVASION END IMMIGRATION!”
The group said that the act was done in retaliation to the condemnation issued by the university against racist flyers posted by its members last year.
In September 2018, the University of Utah issued a statement condemning Identity Evropa over a few flyers.
Today, IE activists hiked the Block U with a massive banner that read “END IMMIGRATION” to let the university – and the world – know that we will NOT be stopped! pic.twitter.com/Jzkkm4z5n1
— Patrick Casey ???????? (@PatrickCaseyIE) February 10, 2019
“Our goals in Utah are no different than in other chapters: recruitment and spreading the message,” Patrick Casey, executive director of Identity Evropa, told The Salt Lake Tribune.
In a similar incident last month, a white nationalist group posted racist signs and stickers across Utah’s campus. Dating back to November 2017, Identity Evropa also posted flyers that read “European Roots American Greatness” at the University of Montana and other adjoining campuses in an attempt to woo students towards its ideology.
Lately, racist incidents on campuses across the country have spiked. Last year, various institutions became the target of racist robocalls on-campus phone lines including Montana State University Billings and Drake University by an Idaho-based white supremacist group, The Road to Power.
Thousands Rally Against Racist Robocalls at Drake University