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.
Dem Senate hopeful holds event at bookstore selling ‘ABOLISH ICE’ merch despite pledge to ‘secure the border’
Father of girl injured by illegal migrant truck driver slams ‘insensitive’ rhetoric during Noem hearing
Nearly 37 Million Pounds of Frozen Food Recalled After Being Sold Across the Country
Surreal NCAA Scandal: California Basketball Coach Was Moonlighting in Multiple States as a Pimp
Rep. Tony Gonzales announces he will not seek re-election amid House Ethics investigation into affair
Federal agents arrest 12 alleged members of LA’s massive 18th Street gang drug trafficking operation
Ohio mother charged with murdering two daughters found buried in suitcases near Cleveland
DOJ officials say Biden autopen investigation has not closed despite reports
DOJ continues Biden autopen probe despite former president unlikely to face charges
US restores diplomatic relations with Venezuela amid push for democratic transition
Operation Epic Fury destroys Iran’s navy and cuts missile attacks by 90% in ongoing campaign
Army reservist, 20, killed in Iranian drone strike in Kuwait, spent final hours reassuring family: ‘I’m good’
California man allegedly fires gun near school zone, barricades in home before surrendering to SWAT pantless
Watch: Here’s the Moment That Appears to Have Cost Kristi Noem Her Job as DHS Secretary
Hegseth blasts Brits, says Iran’s chaotic retaliation has driven its own allies ‘into the American orbit’
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.
Dem Senate hopeful holds event at bookstore selling ‘ABOLISH ICE’ merch despite pledge to ‘secure the border’
Father of girl injured by illegal migrant truck driver slams ‘insensitive’ rhetoric during Noem hearing
Nearly 37 Million Pounds of Frozen Food Recalled After Being Sold Across the Country
Surreal NCAA Scandal: California Basketball Coach Was Moonlighting in Multiple States as a Pimp
Rep. Tony Gonzales announces he will not seek re-election amid House Ethics investigation into affair
Federal agents arrest 12 alleged members of LA’s massive 18th Street gang drug trafficking operation
Ohio mother charged with murdering two daughters found buried in suitcases near Cleveland
DOJ officials say Biden autopen investigation has not closed despite reports
DOJ continues Biden autopen probe despite former president unlikely to face charges
US restores diplomatic relations with Venezuela amid push for democratic transition
Operation Epic Fury destroys Iran’s navy and cuts missile attacks by 90% in ongoing campaign
Army reservist, 20, killed in Iranian drone strike in Kuwait, spent final hours reassuring family: ‘I’m good’
California man allegedly fires gun near school zone, barricades in home before surrendering to SWAT pantless
Watch: Here’s the Moment That Appears to Have Cost Kristi Noem Her Job as DHS Secretary
Hegseth blasts Brits, says Iran’s chaotic retaliation has driven its own allies ‘into the American orbit’
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.
