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.
Trump admin recalling around 30 ambassadors as part of State Dept realignment, official confirms
JD Vance turns Turning Point speech into midterm battle cry — and a preview of 2028
Russian general assassinated in Moscow car bombing
Watch: JD Vance Gets Fiery Response from AmFest Crowd After Declaring the U.S. ‘a Christian Nation’
Shocking Video: Steelers Wide Receiver Punches Lions Fan in the Face in Middle of Sunday Game
Florida teens to be tried as adults in brutal killing of 14-year-old girl
Schumer accuses DOJ of breaking the law over redacted Epstein files
Trump admin pausing all off shore wind project construction due to national security concerns
Convicted killer kept in police oversight role as city council dismisses concerns over public safety
Colorado governor accuses Trump of playing ‘political games’ after FEMA denies disaster requests
US Catholic bishops president says deportations instilling ‘fear’ in ‘widespread manner’: ‘Concerns us all’
Mock funeral held for the penny at Lincoln Memorial as 230-year coin production ends
DHS responds after reports CISA chief allegedly failed polygraph for classified intel access
Former classmate says suspect in Brown, MIT killings was ‘socially awkward’ and ‘angry’ during college years
DOJ restores Trump photo to Epstein files after determining no victims depicted
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.
Trump admin recalling around 30 ambassadors as part of State Dept realignment, official confirms
JD Vance turns Turning Point speech into midterm battle cry — and a preview of 2028
Russian general assassinated in Moscow car bombing
Watch: JD Vance Gets Fiery Response from AmFest Crowd After Declaring the U.S. ‘a Christian Nation’
Shocking Video: Steelers Wide Receiver Punches Lions Fan in the Face in Middle of Sunday Game
Florida teens to be tried as adults in brutal killing of 14-year-old girl
Schumer accuses DOJ of breaking the law over redacted Epstein files
Trump admin pausing all off shore wind project construction due to national security concerns
Convicted killer kept in police oversight role as city council dismisses concerns over public safety
Colorado governor accuses Trump of playing ‘political games’ after FEMA denies disaster requests
US Catholic bishops president says deportations instilling ‘fear’ in ‘widespread manner’: ‘Concerns us all’
Mock funeral held for the penny at Lincoln Memorial as 230-year coin production ends
DHS responds after reports CISA chief allegedly failed polygraph for classified intel access
Former classmate says suspect in Brown, MIT killings was ‘socially awkward’ and ‘angry’ during college years
DOJ restores Trump photo to Epstein files after determining no victims depicted
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.
