Remember Ammon Bundy? He’s one of those who were involved with the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in protest of government prosecution of a pair of ranchers on arson charges. He recently posted a video to Facebook in which he explains opposition to President Donald Trump’s angry racist rhetoric against refugees arriving at the nation’s southern border, although his personal political ideology often tends far right and Trump even pardoned the two ranchers who Bundy protested over back in 2016.
Trump has sharpened his angry racism in response to migrants grouping themselves into “caravans” to attempt to make it into the United States and obtain asylum. He’s gone from claiming without evidence that political interests on the left are behind the caravans to pushing the idea that they’re packed full of criminals and constitute an “invading force.”
November 21, he ranted:
‘There are a lot of CRIMINALS in the Caravan. We will stop them.’
He got plenty more explicit in weeks prior to that remark, offering on October 29:
‘Many Gang Members and some very bad people are mixed into the Caravan heading to our Southern Border. Please go back, you will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!’
In reality, the migrants constitute groups including plenty of women and children who are seeking to utilize the legal process for obtaining asylum in the United States — although border patrol agents have used tear gas on them anyway.
Some have attempted to cross the border at points other than the designated cross stations thanks to the slow rate at which the government processes asylum requests.
Bundy commented:
‘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?.. It’s all fear-based, and frankly it’s based upon selfishness… To base your arguments or your motives or your actions upon fear is a very dangerous thing to do.’
Watch below.
Refugee talk brings a lot of hate, maybe there's some sense in the middle.
Refugee talk brings a lot of hate, maybe there's some sense in the middle.
Posted by Bundy News & Freedom Watchers on Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Trump has essentially sought to dismiss the entire group of asylum seekers in question to the point of seeking to restrict asylum to those who apply at designated ports of entry to the United States, an effort a federal judge overturned for now.
The administration dispatched thousands of active duty soldiers to the border — surpassing the number in Iraq fighting the Islamic State terror group — and authorized them to utilize “a show or use of force (including lethal force, where necessary), crowd control, temporary detention and cursory search.”
The rhetoric has played broadly into the right’s political aims, with stated concern about the caravan dropping off significantly in contexts like the president’s favorite cable news show Fox & Friends in the immediate aftermath of the midterm elections — although the practical steps taken against the refugees have remained in place as does the broader skeleton of angry racist rhetoric from the president.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
