While the United States grapples with the growth of some extremist groups motivated by hateful ideologies, it is also seeing the decline of one historic white supremacist group, according to three reports recently released by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.  The national trend holds true for Colorado and Wyoming.

Last week, ADL released a new report about a controversial anti-refugee vigilante group, formed in Finland, known as the Soldiers of Odin USA.  The new American chapter and its state affiliates have amassed thousands of members eager to bring the group’s anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and refugee-hating ideology to American shores.  Soldiers of Odin USA boasts of holding its first formal “patrol” in a Denver suburb in March and promises that more are on the way.

ADL’s Center on Extremism is also monitoring the rise of racist prison gangs across the United States. ADL’s report shows that white supremacist prison gangs constitute the fastest-growing segment of the white supremacist movement in the country. The gangs are not only growing in membership but in increased activism both behind bars and on the street. The ADL report provides a first-of-its-kind inventory of white supremacist groups by state and prison system – and recommends a number of steps the Justice Department can take to track violent prison gangs and the number of crimes carried out by racist inmates at both the federal and state level.

The report indicates the presence of two racist prison gangs in Colorado prisons – the 211 Crew/Aryan Empire and Crew 1488 – and one such gang in Wyoming prisons – Aryan Soldiers.

At the same time that some extremist groups are experiencing rising numbers and increasing geographical spread, other segments, such as the Ku Klux Klan, are suffering stagnation and even decline. Despite efforts by Ku Klux Klan groups to gain publicity by exploiting the presidential election and distributing hate literature, the Klan today is a collection of mostly small, unorganized groups, according to another ADL report released on Wednesday, “Tattered Robes: The State of the Ku Klux Klan.”

“What remains of the Klan is a collection of mostly small and disjointed groups that have difficulty in recruiting members and even maintaining any semblance of long-term stability,” said Oren Segal, Director of ADL’s Center on Extremism. “Klan groups form and dissolve just as quickly, and few longstanding groups still exist. Even those aren’t very healthy.”