He has engaged in violence to defend Trump’s policies and even organized an “America First” protest against illegal immigrants. He calls himself Johnny Benitez, but his real name is Juan Cadavid and he is from Colombia.
Benitez is an activist on the far-right wing group “Alt-Right”, he is in favor of deporting all illegal immigrants, closings the doors on refugees, and building the border wall, all of which are amongst President Trump’s campaign promises.
He is 29-years-old and arrived to the United States from Colombia brought by his parents when he was 2. About his origins, he stated: “I arrived as a baby, in the late 1980’s, my family came with a work visa and had to go through a long process to sort out their papers, but we arrived legally.”
On his social media accounts (though his Facebook account has been taken down) he usually appears making the OK sign with his fingers, often used by members of the “Alt-Right” movement, as well as posing with guns and the American flag with black stripes.
Even though he has publicly manifested against the rights of immigrants and has belonged to “Proud Boys”, which requires aspiring members to get into a physical fight with an anti-fascist activist at a public rally, he still states that he is not racist: “I am no longer a ‘Proud Boys’, but that group is not racist, neither are ‘Alt Knights’ nor other groups. They are just defenders of white people, but they are not against people of color.”
Said “Alt-Right” movement believes that the white race is being oppressed by “multicultural forces”. According to Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization that studies U.S. hate groups, its members are characterized by use of cyber bullying and memes via social networks to attack liberal groups they call “Antifas” (anti-fascists).
Cadavid explained at the Orange County anti-immigrant protest he organized: “What we want are migratory policies that benefit Americans, because what we now have is an oversupply of cheap labor. Companies want to bring people from Somalia or Mexico to exploit them, we want job opportunities to be for the Americans.” He seems to be forgetting his parents benefited from the same migratory policies he now condemns.
The Colombian is also a writer for the far-right Republican site “The Red Elephants“, were he describes himself as a “Proud patriot, son of liberty, and freedom fighter. It’s always the right time to do the right thing,” as he publishes bigoted and uninformed pro-fascist and anti-immigrant articles.
Unfortunately, it seems that this anti-immigrant stance is resonating as Trump fulfills his campaign promises, with actions like putting end to the DACA program within the next six months.