Overview
Martin Sellner, a white nationalist and former neo-Nazi, spoke virtually at an Indiana rally promoting mass deportation.
The rally was organized by a partner of the Mass Deportation Coalition, which promoted it.
Sellner, who is banned from entering the United States, endorsed the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory and promoted “remigration” in his speech.
An invitation-only Indiana rally hosted Martin Sellner, an Austrian white nationalist with a neo-Nazi past, on the same program as two of the state’s top elected officials, a Republican state lawmaker and a former senior federal immigration official.
The rally was sponsored by the Mass Deportation Coalition, whose partner list includes the Heritage Foundation, the Federation for American Immigration Reform and the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life.
Sellner addressed the August 1 rally by prerecorded video, as did Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith and state Attorney General Todd Rokita. Former U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino spoke in person, as did Anthony Rubin, founder of media outlet Muckraker, another MDC partner.
Sellner told the audience he had to appear remotely because he cannot legally enter the United States. U.S. authorities canceled his visa-waiver travel authorization in 2019 following the revelation of his connection to Brenton Tarrant, the Christchurch mosque shooter. Tarrant, who murdered 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand, had donated approximately 1,500 euros to Sellner in 2018. The two also exchanged several emails, with Sellner suggesting they meet for coffee or beer if he visited Vienna.
Sellner used his MDC address to promote “remigration,” a concept he has popularized, and urge attendees to remain in the streets until “millions have left your nation.”
“From Indiana to Vienna, we have the same problem: unhindered replacement migration,” Sellner said in his prerecorded video. “We also demand the same solution: remigration.”
The concept of “remigration” originated with European neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Remigration advocates seek to force non-white immigrants to leave predominantly white nations, including the United States and countries across Europe. Remigration is directly tied to another white nationalist belief, the great replacement theory, which holds that elites are deliberately replacing white citizens with non-white immigrants.
For Sellner, “remigration” goes far beyond deporting undocumented immigrants. His proposals include revoking citizenship from some dual nationals, restricting Muslims’ religious and political expression and pressuring citizens he considers insufficiently assimilated to leave their own country. Germany’s Federal Administrative Court found the program would reduce those citizens to second-class status and violate their human dignity.
Sellner ended his address by urging attendees to organize around those ideas.
“First the streets, then the parliaments,” he said. “Go on the streets. Don’t leave the streets until millions have left your nation. And, by God, we will have our homelands again.”
Who Is Martin Sellner?
Sellner is a leading figure in Europe’s Identitarian movement, an ethnonationalist network that promotes the racist great replacement conspiracy theory.
As a teenager, Sellner was involved with Austrian neo-Nazi groups, although he says he later renounced Nazism. At 17, he placed swastika stickers on a synagogue near Vienna and was required to serve community service.
Sellner has repeatedly faced restrictions on international travel. British authorities permanently excluded him on security grounds, and U.S. authorities canceled his visa-waiver travel authorization in 2019. Authorities in Germany imposed a three-year entry ban against Sellner in 2024, but the order was later suspended. Less than four weeks after his Indiana address to the MDC, Canada did not grant him travel authorization in time for an August 29 conference on remigration. Sellner addressed that gathering by prerecorded video as well.
The Coalition Behind the Rally
Bovino, once the public face of the Trump administration’s deportation campaign, appeared in person as the rally’s principal speaker. He was demoted in late January following two fatal shootings by federal agents during operations he oversaw in Minneapolis. He retired from the Border Patrol in March.
Save Heritage Indiana, which hosted the rally, is also an MDC partner. The event page lists the coalition as a “Gold Level” sponsor.
As of publication, MDC continued to list the Heritage Foundation, FAIR and the Claremont center as coalition partners. Civil Defense found no public statement from any of them condemning Sellner’s appearance, distancing themselves from his remarks or expressing regret that the coalition sponsored the event.
Founded in 2026, the Civil Defense Institute is a nonpartisan investigative research organization. We research people, organizations and networks whose conduct undermines civil society and Americans’ freedom to participate in public life. Our work examines extremist and conspiracy-driven campaigns, foreign influence, organized harassment and the institutions that enable them.