Pro-Fascists opposed the assimilation policies of Cotillo, who had become Grand Venerable of the New York State branch of OSIA in 1921 and had started an ambitious English language program as a means for upward mobility of the Italian-American community. According to Cotillo, Fascism as a movement was "out of place in the United States" although it could serve its purpose in Italy. He said that American citizens of Italian origin that were truly engaged in Americanization should reject Fascism as incompatible and un-American. Eventually, he joined Fiorello La Guardia and Luigi Antonini, of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, in founding an anti-Fascist New York State chapter of OSIA, the Sons of Italy Grand Lodge. Nevertheless, Cotillo was a staunch supporter of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935.