Ammon Bundy hits Trump over anti-migrant rhetoric

Ammon Bundy, the rancher at the center of a 2016 standoff with the government at an Oregon wildlife preserve, on Tuesday night knocked President Trump over his hard-line policies and rhetoric against a migrant caravan of thousands from Central America that is continuing to arrive in Tijuana, Mexico.

Bundy said that Trump has called the caravan “all criminals” and said that he thinks that characterization is “incorrect.”

{mosads}”To group them all up like, frankly, our president has done — you know, trying to speak respectfully — 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 in a video posted to Facebook.

“What about the fathers, the mothers and the children, that 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 with criminals?” he added.

Bundy first rose to prominence during and after the 2016 armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Bundy said in his Facebook post that some in the caravan will “act like criminals,” but suggested that’s not indicative of the larger group.

“It’s all fear-based, and it’s frankly based upon selfishness,” Bundy said of the rhetoric from the president and his supporters. “I think that’s incorrect. … But also to base your arguments or your motives or your actions based upon fear is a very dangerous thing to do.”

He argued each case should be handled individually, and that the migrants have a right to apply for entry to the U.S.

Bundy’s break with Trump was notable, as the president in July pardoned a pair of Oregon ranchers whose arson conviction became the inspiration for Bundy’s standoff with the government in 2016.

The president has seized on the so-called caravan of migrants in recent weeks, portraying the group as an imminent national security threat and calling its members “invaders.”

In response, the president directed thousands of troops be deployed to the southern border, threatened to close the southern border permanently and has signed a proclamation preventing certain immigrants from claiming asylum.

A federal judge blocked Trump’s asylum order last week, though the administration has appealed the decision.