In the wake of the defacing and destruction of statues of Christopher Columbus, two organizations dedicated to the explorer who is credited with discovering America told Newsmax they plan to stay firm behind their hero and fight back.

Officials of both the National Christopher Columbus Association and the Knights of Columbus spoke to us days before people toppled a Columbus statue in Baltimore’s Little Italy on Sunday and threw it into nearby Inner Harbor. “Columbus just got deported,” read a tweet from a group known as Baltimore Bloc, which has long advocated for his statue to come down.