Trump’s Hard-Line Immigration Views Earn Him An Unlikely Critic: Ammon Bundy

Ammon Bundy, center, one of the sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, walks off after speaking with reporters during a news conference at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters Monday, Jan. 4, 2016, near Burns,... Ammon Bundy, center, one of the sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, walks off after speaking with reporters during a news conference at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters Monday, Jan. 4, 2016, near Burns, Ore. Bundy, who was involved in a 2014 standoff with the government over grazing rights told reporters on Monday that two local ranchers who face long prison sentences for setting fire to land have been treated unfairly. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) MORE LESS
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Ammon Bundy, who gained fame after spearheading standoffs with federal authorities and law enforcement, is breaking with President Donald Trump over Trump’s hard-line immigration views. The dissent has earned him death threats, he said in a video posted to Facebook.

“He has basically called them all criminals and said they’re not coming in here. It seems that there’s been this group stereotype,” Bundy said of Trump’s immigration rhetoric in the video. “But what about those who have come here for reasons of need?”

“What about the fathers, the mothers, the children, who have come here and are willing to go through the process to apply for asylum so they can come into this country and benefit from not having to be oppressed continually by criminals?” he added.

Bundy came into the national consciousness when he supported his father, Cliven, who refused to yield federally owned land back to the Bureau of Land Management after neglecting to pay to graze his cattle. The armed standoff was deescalated after negotiation with law enforcement.

Two years later, Ammon Bundy led a standoff with federal authorities himself in Oregon after his fellow militia members, Dwight and Steven Hammond, were imprisoned on arson charges. Trump later pardoned the Hammonds, a move seen in Bundy’s circle as a gesture of support.

Now, Bundy’s variance from the President seems to have angered those who considered him on team Trump. He said that some of the comments on his immigration stance were “negative to the point where several people wished me dead.”

Bundy maintained, though, that while some refugees coming from Central America may “act like criminals,” most of them are coming to the United States out of need and ought to be “considered individually.”

“These are people, the majority of them need help,” he said. “There is a possibility of danger with some of them, they need to be vetted. And then they need to be brought in here and added to this great, wonderful country.”

Watch the video here:

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