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.
Judge Overseeing Maduro Case in New York Dies Before Trial
ALERT: Dominion-Related Lawsuit Dismissed Against Patrick Byrne Over ‘The Deep Rig’ Film – No Legal Basis for Key Claim
Flavio Bolsonaro declares himself ‘true elected president of Brazil’ after fleeing to US with blessing of the White House
Arab Israeli parties emerge as wild card in parliamentary elections
Woman wearing burka escorted out of Florida county meeting after playing call to prayer recording
Manhattan 9/11 Memorial Desecrated by Anti-Second Amendment Radical
Dem AG’s ‘too many golf courses’ remark goes viral as critics tee off
Police Arrest 3 They Say Planned to Carry Out Mass Shooting at Georgia High School
Fifteen charged in DC drug bust for transnational meth and GBL trafficking ring
Dueling rallies thrust deep-red Lone Star town into the center of the political universe
‘Radical Left Lunatic’ judge Trump wanted impeached takes up Ilhan Omar warrant fight
Mary Peltola’s campaign, Dems backed covert scheme to field spoiler candidates in Alaska Senate race: report
FBI reports 67% jump in violent crime arrests under Trump compared to Biden’s final months
Mary Peltola and ‘Decoy Dan’ Sullivan face collusion accusations as DOJ investigates Alaska Senate campaign
Hochul reveals which election result would make her job ‘a lot easier’ — and it’s not her own
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.
Judge Overseeing Maduro Case in New York Dies Before Trial
ALERT: Dominion-Related Lawsuit Dismissed Against Patrick Byrne Over ‘The Deep Rig’ Film – No Legal Basis for Key Claim
Flavio Bolsonaro declares himself ‘true elected president of Brazil’ after fleeing to US with blessing of the White House
Arab Israeli parties emerge as wild card in parliamentary elections
Woman wearing burka escorted out of Florida county meeting after playing call to prayer recording
Manhattan 9/11 Memorial Desecrated by Anti-Second Amendment Radical
Dem AG’s ‘too many golf courses’ remark goes viral as critics tee off
Police Arrest 3 They Say Planned to Carry Out Mass Shooting at Georgia High School
Fifteen charged in DC drug bust for transnational meth and GBL trafficking ring
Dueling rallies thrust deep-red Lone Star town into the center of the political universe
‘Radical Left Lunatic’ judge Trump wanted impeached takes up Ilhan Omar warrant fight
Mary Peltola’s campaign, Dems backed covert scheme to field spoiler candidates in Alaska Senate race: report
FBI reports 67% jump in violent crime arrests under Trump compared to Biden’s final months
Mary Peltola and ‘Decoy Dan’ Sullivan face collusion accusations as DOJ investigates Alaska Senate campaign
Hochul reveals which election result would make her job ‘a lot easier’ — and it’s not her own
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.
