The authorities in Kentucky are investigating fliers distributed in several cities across the state on Inauguration Day that called on immigrants to “LEAVE NOW” to avoid mass deportation and encouraged membership in the Ku Klux Klan.
The fliers feature a cartoon image of Uncle Sam as he holds a proclamation declaring “Mass Deportation” on Jan. 20, 2025, the day of President Trump’s inauguration, while he kicks a family. The proclamation encourages people to “Monitor & Track all Immigrants” and “REPORT THEM ALL.”
The flier, which names the Trinity White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, provides information for joining Klan chapters in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee.
The police department in Ludlow, Ky., said in a statement posted on social media on Monday that it had received one report “for this disturbing and disgusting KKK propaganda that is being passed around our community.”
“This hateful garbage has been turning up in other cities as well,” the agency said. “We do not support or condone this type of behavior.”
The Ludlow Police Department provided The New York Times with a copy of the flier with the contact information for the groups blurred out.
The fliers were also reported in Fort Wright and Bellevue on Monday. All three cities are in northern Kentucky near the Ohio border.
Mayor Dave Hatter of Fort Wright called the fliers “despicable” and said the police were investigating.
“It is especially appalling that it happened on Dr. Martin Luther King Day,” which was also on Monday, Mr. Hatter said in a statement. “We strive to ensure that Fort Wright is a welcoming community and is a wonderful place to live, work and play for ALL.”
Jon McClain, the chief of police in Bellevue, said in a statement that “law enforcement does not condone hate speech.”
While the flier itself is protected by the First Amendment, Chief McClain said, it does violate local ordinances, including one that prohibits people from posting fliers “of any kind on public property.”
Chief McClain, the Ludlow Police Department and representatives for the city of Fort Wright said on Wednesday evening that they had no additional information about the fliers.
The Trinity White Knights, an active chapter of the K.K.K. in Maysville, Ky., have distributed similar fliers in the past, including as recently as 2023, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Reports of fliers connected to the Klan have popped up across Indiana and Ohio.
Mr. Trump promised to curtail immigration and undertake mass deportations upon taking office and has sought to deliver on those promises by issuing a number of executive orders in the hours after his inauguration.
In a series of orders he signed on Monday, Mr. Trump moved to seal the nation’s borders against migrants and systematically crack down on undocumented immigrants already in the United States, part of a barrage of policy changes that included a national emergency declaration to deploy the military to the border and a bid to cut off birthright citizenship for the children of noncitizens.
