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.
Fort Hood survivors praise Trump for scrapping Hasan execution livestream: ‘We’re not barbaric’
Trump links Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed to Muslim Brotherhood: ‘He’s a con man’
WH Investigating Ex-Kennedy Center Head Over Reportedly Missing $5.6 Million Donation – Had Previously Fired Western Journal Founder Over His Faith
DOJ case attacks mass murder fandom culture behind Canadian school shooting
Bill and Hillary Clinton make eleventh-hour midterm moves as party’s old guard faces new reality
Somalis in Minnesota unleash fury on Trump after feds raid Ilhan Omar’s DC home
MS NOW Reporter Offers Hilarious Apology After Fake Reporting: Kash Patel ‘Did Not, in Fact, Land in Russia’
Gaza cut off from commercial goods imports, Israel says
James Talarico Tries To Play Moderate at CNN Town Hall, Gets Owned on Abortion by Catholic Voter
Watch: El-Sayed Visibly Stunned When NBC Turns Screws on Muslim Brotherhood Connection, Forces Him to Answer
Trump shares photos of ‘fully renovated White House facade’
Fox News ‘Antisemitism Exposed’ Newsletter: Israel haters admit what they really want
Obama’s billion-dollar baby: Chicago center’s price tag hits monumental milestone, tripling original estimate
Investigators zero in on possible cause of Wisconsin plane crash that killed 6
DOJ gives California 48 hours to review list of possible noncitizens on voter rolls
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.
Fort Hood survivors praise Trump for scrapping Hasan execution livestream: ‘We’re not barbaric’
Trump links Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed to Muslim Brotherhood: ‘He’s a con man’
WH Investigating Ex-Kennedy Center Head Over Reportedly Missing $5.6 Million Donation – Had Previously Fired Western Journal Founder Over His Faith
DOJ case attacks mass murder fandom culture behind Canadian school shooting
Bill and Hillary Clinton make eleventh-hour midterm moves as party’s old guard faces new reality
Somalis in Minnesota unleash fury on Trump after feds raid Ilhan Omar’s DC home
MS NOW Reporter Offers Hilarious Apology After Fake Reporting: Kash Patel ‘Did Not, in Fact, Land in Russia’
Gaza cut off from commercial goods imports, Israel says
James Talarico Tries To Play Moderate at CNN Town Hall, Gets Owned on Abortion by Catholic Voter
Watch: El-Sayed Visibly Stunned When NBC Turns Screws on Muslim Brotherhood Connection, Forces Him to Answer
Trump shares photos of ‘fully renovated White House facade’
Fox News ‘Antisemitism Exposed’ Newsletter: Israel haters admit what they really want
Obama’s billion-dollar baby: Chicago center’s price tag hits monumental milestone, tripling original estimate
Investigators zero in on possible cause of Wisconsin plane crash that killed 6
DOJ gives California 48 hours to review list of possible noncitizens on voter rolls
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.
