OR occupiers: patriots or outlaws?

The militia occupying a federal compound in OR may have accessed files on employees, prompting a warning from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Leader Ammon Bundy told reporters that Harney County officials won’t let them use the fairgrounds, as they had hoped.

A member of the group occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge stands guard at the refuge, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016, in Burns, Ore.

An Oregon judge wants the ranchers who are occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Center to repay the government the money the armed occupation has cost, or between ,000 and ,000 per day for the first week after their arrival, the Guardian reported.

“It’s still in limbo”, Bundy said. “I’m going to uphold my oath to the Constitution and sleep great at night knowing that I did everything in my power to ensure what our founding fathers did for us will not be lost”.

Chris Briels, a member of the Harney County Committee of Safety, a group of private citizens, announced his resignation surrounded by cheering anti-government activists.

According to AP, Bundy has refused to cooperate with local law enforcement, residents, and the OR governor’s request that the group leave the federal property.

Harney County Sheriff David Ward has asked the protesters to stand down.

Bundy has previously said the occupiers wouldn’t leave until a plan was in place to turn over federal lands to local authorities.

What he did talk about at the press conference is the OR ranchers serving a federal prison sentence for setting fires on federal land, Dwight and Steven Hammond. The occupation of a wildlife refuge by armed protesters in OR reflects a decades-old dispute over land rights in the United States, where local communities have increasingly sought to take back federal land.

But a march supporting the Hammonds led to the armed occupation of the refuge, with occupiers decrying what they call government overreach when it comes to federal lands. And while they have drawn supporters to the site, more opponents and critics also have shown up, one Monday with a cardboard sign that said “Get the flock out of my wildlife refuge”.

Rep. Dallas Heard met with the group Saturday despite local officials asking that he not meet with them.