Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) and other officials will hold a vigil on Tuesday to protest a neo-Nazi group’s anti-immigration rally in a New York City park over the weekend.
“Happening today: @RepEspaillat will hold a speak out against racism event ‘Uptown Standing Together Against Racism & Xenophobia’ today at 6:30p at Billings Lawn at Ft. Tryon Park,” Espaillat said.
The Democratic lawmaker’s tweet came just days after the group, Identity Evropa, unveiled a banner reading “Stop the invasion, end immigration” during a rally at Fort Tyron Park in the New York City neighborhood of Inwood.
{monads}Gothamist reported that members, who kept their faces hidden, walked throughout the park waving American flags and flags with the group’s logo on them.
Uptown Collective posted multiple photos of the event on Twitter. One of them shows the anti-immigration banner being unfurled over the arched Billings Arcade, according to Gothamist.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which has designated Identity Evropa a hate group, notes that it “is at the forefront of the racist ‘alt-right’s’ effort to recruit white, college-aged men and transform them into the fashionable new face of white nationalism.”