HOMESTEAD, Florida — Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) told demonstrators and the assembled media outside the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children that migrant children from Central America “had no choice but to come here” because climate change had ravaged their countries.
O’Rourke said that rising temperatures had created droughts, which made it more difficult for people to grow their own food. That, he said, forced them to undertake the arduous journey on foot to the U.S. border, and to cross illegally.
O’Rourke was the fourth presidential candidate to visit the protest outside the facility, where thousands of teenagers, most of whom arrived unaccompanied, are temporarily housed until they can be handed over to a sponsor in the U.S.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) was the first the protests: he was followed on Wednesday by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and then several other candidates decided to visit as well, turning the protests into something of a presidential pilgrimate. O’Rourke was preceded an hour before by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
O’Rourke, who was greeted and briefed by local activists, turned his visit into a rally, spending roughly half an hour atop a ladder overlooking the fence around the facility.
To Combat ICE, Reckless Dem. Rep. Spreads Plan That Will Destroy 911 System, Cut Off Citizens from Police, Fire, Medical Help
48 Hours After Taking Over Virginia, Dems Were Cutting Prison Sentences, Gutting Hand Ballot Recounts, Banning Gas Mowers, and So Much More
Nanny love triangle murders trial pits dueling stories of mastermind behind case ‘out of a TV movie’: expert
Trump endorsement rocks Louisiana Senate race as Letlow poised to jump in
NORAD aircraft to arrive in Greenland for routine exercises
US Marshals nab fugitive hiding under child’s bed: officials
Oklahoma Citizens Rise Up Against Plans to Build Mosque in Their Town
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps poses global threat even if Iranian regime is decapitated
House Speaker Mike Johnson tells British Parliament he came to ‘calm the waters’
One year back in the Oval Office, Trump White House says every major campaign promise delivered
172 Christians Abducted from Two Church Services in Nigeria
Trump inauguration a year later: ‘America First’ interpretation tests fragile coalition
ICE says immigrant who died in Texas detention center committed suicide
Judge and wife shot in broad daylight in Indiana, sparking massive multi-agency investigation
Dem Senator Warner admits Biden ‘screwed up’ the border, but claims ICE now targeting noncriminals
Unlike other candidates, he was not content to peer over the fence, but delivered an impromptu speech.
“He who denies the stranger or the outcast, he also denies America,” O’Rourke said, citing Robert Kennedy.
“Instead of reuniting them [the teenagers] with their families, we are incarcerating them in tents in a for-profit facility with no oversight,” he added. He demanded that the Homestead facility, and every other like it, be shut down.
In Spanish, he declared: “We must reunite every boy and girl here with their family.”
He also urged the small crowd to wave to the teenagers inside the facility, barely visible in the distance, wearing bright orange caps.
To Combat ICE, Reckless Dem. Rep. Spreads Plan That Will Destroy 911 System, Cut Off Citizens from Police, Fire, Medical Help
48 Hours After Taking Over Virginia, Dems Were Cutting Prison Sentences, Gutting Hand Ballot Recounts, Banning Gas Mowers, and So Much More
Nanny love triangle murders trial pits dueling stories of mastermind behind case ‘out of a TV movie’: expert
Trump endorsement rocks Louisiana Senate race as Letlow poised to jump in
NORAD aircraft to arrive in Greenland for routine exercises
US Marshals nab fugitive hiding under child’s bed: officials
Oklahoma Citizens Rise Up Against Plans to Build Mosque in Their Town
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps poses global threat even if Iranian regime is decapitated
House Speaker Mike Johnson tells British Parliament he came to ‘calm the waters’
One year back in the Oval Office, Trump White House says every major campaign promise delivered
172 Christians Abducted from Two Church Services in Nigeria
Trump inauguration a year later: ‘America First’ interpretation tests fragile coalition
ICE says immigrant who died in Texas detention center committed suicide
Judge and wife shot in broad daylight in Indiana, sparking massive multi-agency investigation
Dem Senator Warner admits Biden ‘screwed up’ the border, but claims ICE now targeting noncriminals
O’Rourke added: “Donald Trump has done this; its up to change who is in the White House going forward.” However, the facility was first opened under the Obama administration, and briefly closed before re-opening in March 2018.
Gayle Bouley, of Miami, arrived with her family to join the protest, carrying a sign with a yellow Star of David and the words, “Never again is now.”
Asked by Breitbart News if she supported comparisons between the migrant facilities and concentration camps, she said she did.
“I don’t know how look at how you look at it any other way,” she said, stressing that she was both a veteran and a Jew.
Story cited here.
