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.
Winery belonging to Ilhan Omar’s husband shut down amid financial spotlight
Broad Wording in Trump Admin’s Psychedelic Push Could Endanger Most Vulnerable Mentally Ill
Pope Backfire: Trump’s Support Among Catholics Went Up After Trump Fired Back at Pope Leo
Ilhan Omar Husband’s Winery Suspiciously Shutters After Investigation Is Launched Into Her Finances
Chicago hospital shooting leaves 2 officers injured, 1 critically; suspect in custody: report
Trump cancels Witkoff, Kushner’s Pakistan trip for Iran talks, says regime is suffering from ‘infighting’
Suspect who fled US arrested in caught-on-camera killing of 15-year-old in NYC park
Breaking: Trump Pulls Plug on Iran Talks as US Seizes Iran Ships, Strengthens Blockade – ‘We Have All the Cards’
FLASHBACK: Obama tried to make Trump a punchline at 2011 dinner before rise stunned Washington
Trump cancels Witkoff and Kushner’s trip to Pakistan for Iran negotiations
U.S. Government Monitors as British Authorities Prosecute Christian Pastor Who Quoted John 3:16
Fetterman backs Wicker’s call to restart attacks in Iran
Trump to headline 2026 White House Correspondents’ Dinner for the first time as president
Rat Poison Found in Baby Food Jars Leads to Total Recall
Barricaded suspect faces murder charges after 2 doctoral students vanished from campus, 1 body remains missing
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.
Winery belonging to Ilhan Omar’s husband shut down amid financial spotlight
Broad Wording in Trump Admin’s Psychedelic Push Could Endanger Most Vulnerable Mentally Ill
Pope Backfire: Trump’s Support Among Catholics Went Up After Trump Fired Back at Pope Leo
Ilhan Omar Husband’s Winery Suspiciously Shutters After Investigation Is Launched Into Her Finances
Chicago hospital shooting leaves 2 officers injured, 1 critically; suspect in custody: report
Trump cancels Witkoff, Kushner’s Pakistan trip for Iran talks, says regime is suffering from ‘infighting’
Suspect who fled US arrested in caught-on-camera killing of 15-year-old in NYC park
Breaking: Trump Pulls Plug on Iran Talks as US Seizes Iran Ships, Strengthens Blockade – ‘We Have All the Cards’
FLASHBACK: Obama tried to make Trump a punchline at 2011 dinner before rise stunned Washington
Trump cancels Witkoff and Kushner’s trip to Pakistan for Iran negotiations
U.S. Government Monitors as British Authorities Prosecute Christian Pastor Who Quoted John 3:16
Fetterman backs Wicker’s call to restart attacks in Iran
Trump to headline 2026 White House Correspondents’ Dinner for the first time as president
Rat Poison Found in Baby Food Jars Leads to Total Recall
Barricaded suspect faces murder charges after 2 doctoral students vanished from campus, 1 body remains missing
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.
