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.
Border Patrol arrests two illegal aliens convicted of child sex offenses near San Diego in back-to-back busts
Trump opens Hormuz under fire with ‘Project Freedom’ as Iran warns of attacks
Arkansas school director sentenced for being ‘ringleader’ of child fight club
Civil rights groups file lawsuit seeking to block Texas law allowing cops to arrest illegal migrants
Rudy Giuliani’s primary care provider gives update on his condition
Police dog follows his nose to find missing autistic teen screaming for help
Ohio daycare worker convicted of horrific physical abuse of toddlers sentenced to years in prison
Alert: Child Struck by Gunfire as Secret Service Neutralizes Alleged Gunman Near White House
Military-trained fugitive accused of shooting wife eludes manhunt in rural woodlands
Staffer for Dem Sen. Cory Booker Who Brought Gun Into Capitol Without a License Saw Charges Quickly Dropped: DOJ
Video shows Dem candidate dodging Trump violence question as campaign issues response
Florida GOP candidate reveals why ‘amazing’ fundraising haul and key Trump moves suggest midterm ‘optimism’
GOP challenger Joe Kaufman to run in Florida’s 25th district; will face either Moskowitz or Wasserman Schultz
Trump’s troop drawdown jolts Europe as NATO chief says leaders got the ‘message’
NATO Chief Says European Leaders Have Finally ‘Gotten the Message’ from Trump and Are Changing Their Ways
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.
Border Patrol arrests two illegal aliens convicted of child sex offenses near San Diego in back-to-back busts
Trump opens Hormuz under fire with ‘Project Freedom’ as Iran warns of attacks
Arkansas school director sentenced for being ‘ringleader’ of child fight club
Civil rights groups file lawsuit seeking to block Texas law allowing cops to arrest illegal migrants
Rudy Giuliani’s primary care provider gives update on his condition
Police dog follows his nose to find missing autistic teen screaming for help
Ohio daycare worker convicted of horrific physical abuse of toddlers sentenced to years in prison
Alert: Child Struck by Gunfire as Secret Service Neutralizes Alleged Gunman Near White House
Military-trained fugitive accused of shooting wife eludes manhunt in rural woodlands
Staffer for Dem Sen. Cory Booker Who Brought Gun Into Capitol Without a License Saw Charges Quickly Dropped: DOJ
Video shows Dem candidate dodging Trump violence question as campaign issues response
Florida GOP candidate reveals why ‘amazing’ fundraising haul and key Trump moves suggest midterm ‘optimism’
GOP challenger Joe Kaufman to run in Florida’s 25th district; will face either Moskowitz or Wasserman Schultz
Trump’s troop drawdown jolts Europe as NATO chief says leaders got the ‘message’
NATO Chief Says European Leaders Have Finally ‘Gotten the Message’ from Trump and Are Changing Their Ways
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.
