Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers said he will pay back the $1,100 that the Federation for American Immigration Reform provided for him to attend a White House briefing on drugs and border security in September.
“My wife and I have talked about this, and I didn’t know this is sort of a hate group,” he said today. “I did some research by looking at the website and I have talked to people, and it has bothered some people,” he said. “So I will send the money back.”
Myers said he has no affiliation with FAIR and that he could not say whether or not the group is a hate group.
“But a lot of people do think they are (a hate group) and I serve the people,” Myers said.
“A mistake was made and I am paying it back,” Myers said. “I’m not perfect.”
He also added, “The hate needs to stop.”
Myers was one of about 200 sheriffs from around the United States who attended the briefing on Sept. 26. Myers attended discussions on drug enforcement and border concerns with high-ranking Trump administration officials, including Kellyanne Conway, assistant to the president and senior counselor.
FAIR describes itself as a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that seeks to eliminate illegal immigration and drastically reduce legal immigration to “allow America to more sensibly manage its growth, address its environmental needs and maintain a high quality of life.”
The group has been criticized by the Anti-Defamation League, which said FAIR’s anti-immigration stance is based on a bigoted representation of immigrants and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has classified FAIR as a “hate group” since 2008, for accepting money from a pro-eugenics fund and promoting the “hatred of immigrants, especially non-white ones.”
The law center defines “hate group” mirrors the FBI’s definition of a hate crime, with the center defining “hate group” as any organization that “has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable traits.”
For more on this story, see Friday’s Republic.
