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.
Left-wing group chases proof of Kash Patel’s alleged ‘excessive drinking’ as Dems eye FBI director’s ouster
Omar ducks questions as scrutiny grows over filings that slashed her reported wealth by millions
Breaking: Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick Resigns, Blames House Ethics Committee
Epic: Chip Roy’s ‘MAMDANI Act’ Targets Marxist, Islamist Fanatics with Deportation, Calls Out Radicalism in Immigration
Dark money floods Virginia ahead of redistricting vote that could hand Democrats House edge
US falls behind in hypersonic race as China, Russia gain edge
European Court of Justice declares Hungary cannot ban ‘promotion of homosexuality’ among minors
Kevin Warsh says he never made any promises on interest rates to Trump
Trump Says Ceasefire Has Been ‘Violated Numerous Times’ as Iran Threatens to Deploy ‘New Cards on the Battlefield’
‘Traitor’ Dem senator ripped after one-word reaction appears to cheer on Iran
Alert: 26 Christians Kidnapped in 8 Days by Muslims Fulani Terrorists in Nigeria
Hiker identified, popular trail closed after deadly fall at Utah’s Zion National Park
Byron Donalds cracks down on persistent border blind spot leaving US vulnerable to overstays
DOJ Reveals How Biden Weaponized the Government Against Anti-Abortion Activists
Suspect allegedly guns down deputy in ambush during routine call that rocked quiet town, police say
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.
Left-wing group chases proof of Kash Patel’s alleged ‘excessive drinking’ as Dems eye FBI director’s ouster
Omar ducks questions as scrutiny grows over filings that slashed her reported wealth by millions
Breaking: Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick Resigns, Blames House Ethics Committee
Epic: Chip Roy’s ‘MAMDANI Act’ Targets Marxist, Islamist Fanatics with Deportation, Calls Out Radicalism in Immigration
Dark money floods Virginia ahead of redistricting vote that could hand Democrats House edge
US falls behind in hypersonic race as China, Russia gain edge
European Court of Justice declares Hungary cannot ban ‘promotion of homosexuality’ among minors
Kevin Warsh says he never made any promises on interest rates to Trump
Trump Says Ceasefire Has Been ‘Violated Numerous Times’ as Iran Threatens to Deploy ‘New Cards on the Battlefield’
‘Traitor’ Dem senator ripped after one-word reaction appears to cheer on Iran
Alert: 26 Christians Kidnapped in 8 Days by Muslims Fulani Terrorists in Nigeria
Hiker identified, popular trail closed after deadly fall at Utah’s Zion National Park
Byron Donalds cracks down on persistent border blind spot leaving US vulnerable to overstays
DOJ Reveals How Biden Weaponized the Government Against Anti-Abortion Activists
Suspect allegedly guns down deputy in ambush during routine call that rocked quiet town, police say
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.
