Congressman’s Resolution Condemns Bundy-Led Occupation In Oregon

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D‑Ariz.) on Tuesday intro­duced a res­o­lu­tion call­ing on Congress to offi­cial­ly con­demn “the unlaw­ful, armed occu­pa­tion” of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. “This is not a roman­tic instance of Western self-reliance or an excus­able moment of heat­ed rhetoric,” Grijalva said in a state­ment. “This is armed occu­pa­tion of pub­lic prop­er­ty by peo­ple who have threat­ened dead­ly force.” Approximately 20 armed occu­piers took over the gov­ern­ment build­ing on Saturday. They are protest­ing that Dwight and Steven Hammond were sen­tenced to five years in prison for com­mit­ting arson on fed­er­al­ly man­aged land to which they held graz­ing rights. The men’s fam­i­ly mem­bers have dis­tanced them­selves from the ille­gal occu­pa­tion, and said any sup­port for the fam­i­ly should be peaceful.

The leader of the occu­pa­tion is Ammon Bundy, the son of Nevada ranch­er Cliven Bundy, who became a con­ser­v­a­tive hero when he led an anti-gov­ern­ment stand­off with fed­er­al author­i­ties in 2014. Speaking to the press on behalf of the group, the younger Bundy said Sunday that the group intend­ed to resist gov­ern­ment tyran­ny and was will­ing to stay at the wildlife refuge’s head­quar­ters indef­i­nite­ly. Ryan Bundy, his broth­er, said they were will­ing “to kill and be killed.“Grijalva’s res­o­lu­tion high­lights dis­rup­tions the occu­pa­tion has caused in the local com­mu­ni­ty, such as school clo­sures and fed­er­al employ­ees being unable to report for work. “It is imper­a­tive that this unlaw­ful occu­pa­tion does not esca­late into vio­lence,” it reads.

Some Republican pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates, includ­ing Sen. Ted Cruz (R‑Texas) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R‑Fla.) have spo­ken against the ille­gal tac­tics employed in Oregon. Former Pennsylvania sen­a­tor and pres­i­den­tial can­di­date Rick Santorum com­pared them to those used in the Occupy Wall Street move­ment, which Democrats gen­er­al­ly sup­port­ed. House Natural Resources Committee Chair Rep. Rob Bishop (R‑Utah) declined Grijalva’s appeal to sign on to his res­o­lu­tion, accord­ing to a Grijalva spokesman. Bishop’s office did not respond to a request for com­ment. In 2014, Cliven Bundy refused to pay fed­er­al offi­cials who arrived at his home to col­lect an esti­mat­ed $1 mil­lion in graz­ing fees. He gar­nered media atten­tion and the sup­port of some mem­bers of Congress, includ­ing Sen. Dean Heller (R‑Nev.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R‑Ky.). He lost much of that sup­port, how­ev­er, when he sug­gest­ed that black peo­ple might be bet­ter off as slaves rather than “under gov­ern­ment sub­si­dies.” His graz­ing fees are still out­stand­ing. President Teddy Roosevelt declared the area the gun­men are cur­rent­ly hold­ing in Oregon to be a nation­al wildlife refuge in 1908.
Congressman’s Resolution Condemns Bundy-Led Occupation In Oregon