If you remember the name Ammon Bundy, you might be very surprised to hear that he’s very publicly criticizing President Trump’s immigration policy.
Bundy and his father made national headlines back in 2014 when they led an armed standoff with the federal government at their ranch. Later, Bundy took part in another armed standoff in Oregon which ended when federal officials shot one of Bundy’s fellow protestors to death.
But in a recent video post to his Facebook page, Bundy went after Trump for his rhetorical attacks on the caravan of migrants seeking asylum in the United States and Mexico.
“He has basically called them all criminals and said they’re not coming in here,” Bundy says. “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?”
In the 17-minute-video, Bundy goes on to use his own Mormon faith to criticize his usual allies on the right side of the right side of the political spectrum who lean on their faith when advocating policies.
“I have been frankly surprised, disappointed and even at times disgusted [by] the amount of people who profess to be Christians but will not truly adhere to what Christ said,” Bundy says.
Bundy admits he was not entirely up to speed on the caravan debate, so he began researching the issue from a variety of different media sources outside of partisan outlets on the left and right. While saying he believes law enforcement has a right and duty to protect the borders, he said humanitarian reasons cannot be ignored either.
“Then, they come to the border, and they have a right — a legal right — to apply to come into this country,” he said of those in the caravan. “Each one of them should be considered individually.”
None of this is to make Bundy out as some kind of hero. He has engaged in armed confrontations with the federal government and been accused to being little more than an attention seeking crook by some of his critics. Yet even as a baseline of comparison, it’s still a powerful contrast with the president. As a number of readers have pointed out, if anything this is a reminder that even those on the political fringes of American society seem to have a more basic grasp of compassion and common decency than our commander-in-chief.
“These are people, the majority of them need help,” Bundy says later in the video. “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.”