"What they're doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities, operations, and we're going to actually go after them and prosecute"
As a slogan in American political discourse, “America First” originated from the nativist American Party in the 1850s. The motto has been used by both Democratic and Republican politicians in the United States. At the outbreak of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson used the slogan to define his version of neutrality, as did newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. The motto was also chosen by Republican Senator Warren G. Harding during the 1920 presidential election, which he won.
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) used the phrase at the organization’s peak in the 1920s, when racist, xenophobic sentiment was widespread; it informed many of their members who ran for political office. The Immigration Act of 1924 sponsored by Washington U.S. representative Albert Johnson proved to legislate xenophobia and white supremacy, excluding immigrants on the basis of ethnicity and national origin in an effort to preserve white racial demographics. Johnson’s leading role in the immigration restriction bill elicited strong support from the KKK.
To illustrate: