Idaho Republicans urging government to allow Austrian nationalist into US to marry alt-right YouTuber

The Republican Party of an Idaho county unanimously passed a resolution Thursday urging federal authorities to allow the leader of a far-right Austrian movement to travel to Idaho to marry his fiancée, according to the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

Martin Sellner, a leader of the anti-immigrant and anti-Islam Generation Identity movement in Austria, reportedly had his Electronic System for Travel Authorization, which allows citizens of certain countries to enter the U.S. without a visa, canceled by U.S. authorities last month.

{mosads}Sellner has been under investigation for alleged ties to Brenton Tarrant, the Australian charged with killing 50 worshippers at two New Zealand mosques last month and told the Associated Press in March that he had corresponded with Tarrant by email after Tarrant donated the equivalent of $1,700 to him last year. Sellner denied inspiring Tarrant’s alleged attack.

On Thursday, the Kootenai County Republican Party passed a resolution accusing federal authorities of restricting Sellner’s travel for “political reasons.”

“Martin has been to the U.S. four times with no issue and never caused any kind of disturbance, so it really was politically motivated,” Sellner’s fiancée, Brittany Pettibone, a YouTube pundit, told the party, according to the newspaper.

Kootenai County GOP Chairman Brent Regan told the newspaper the party took up the resolution because Pettibone is a constituent, not as an endorsement of her or Sellner’s views.