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.
High School Football Team Shines ‘the Light of Jesus’ by Giving Every Opponent a Bible After Games
Which ‘Fake News’ Outlet Will Trump Ban from the White House Next? He Just Dropped Some Major Hints, and It’s Making Them Squirm
Why the House let out early is a matter of debate after Johnson says chamber has ‘done its work’
DOJ Declares it Will No Longer Enforce Two Gun-Control Statutes That Are ‘Inconsistent with the Second Amendment’
Vance calls midterms a referendum on ‘common sense versus pure unadulterated crazy’
Would-Be Robber Finds Out the Hard Way That He Picked the Wrong Victim: Two Shots Later He Was in the ER
Unsealed FBI interviews reveal Obama, Emanuel’s discussions about Blagojevich Senate seat deal
Illegal immigrant rideshare driver charged with rape in Maryland had prior NYC sex abuse arrest
Trump declares victory in historic deal with Greenland as he secures ‘permanent’ US military rights
FAA advances Trump’s ‘Triumphal Arch’ after review finds height doesn’t pose safety hazard to planes
Fox News Campus Radicals Newsletter: Trump bashing, chilled speech and a major saga renewed
Internet Detectives Are Convinced an Innocuous Converse Sneaker Ad Is Full of White Supremacist Dog Whistles
Hasan Piker calls Bin Laden a ‘spoiled brat,’ labels 9/11 ‘blowback’ in Axios interview
Watch: ‘CBS Mornings’ Suddenly Heaps Praise on Lindsay Clancy Holdout Juror in Light of New Developments
Foreign hackers breach two more US water utilities, threaten safety of Colorado residents
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.
High School Football Team Shines ‘the Light of Jesus’ by Giving Every Opponent a Bible After Games
Which ‘Fake News’ Outlet Will Trump Ban from the White House Next? He Just Dropped Some Major Hints, and It’s Making Them Squirm
Why the House let out early is a matter of debate after Johnson says chamber has ‘done its work’
DOJ Declares it Will No Longer Enforce Two Gun-Control Statutes That Are ‘Inconsistent with the Second Amendment’
Vance calls midterms a referendum on ‘common sense versus pure unadulterated crazy’
Would-Be Robber Finds Out the Hard Way That He Picked the Wrong Victim: Two Shots Later He Was in the ER
Unsealed FBI interviews reveal Obama, Emanuel’s discussions about Blagojevich Senate seat deal
Illegal immigrant rideshare driver charged with rape in Maryland had prior NYC sex abuse arrest
Trump declares victory in historic deal with Greenland as he secures ‘permanent’ US military rights
FAA advances Trump’s ‘Triumphal Arch’ after review finds height doesn’t pose safety hazard to planes
Fox News Campus Radicals Newsletter: Trump bashing, chilled speech and a major saga renewed
Internet Detectives Are Convinced an Innocuous Converse Sneaker Ad Is Full of White Supremacist Dog Whistles
Hasan Piker calls Bin Laden a ‘spoiled brat,’ labels 9/11 ‘blowback’ in Axios interview
Watch: ‘CBS Mornings’ Suddenly Heaps Praise on Lindsay Clancy Holdout Juror in Light of New Developments
Foreign hackers breach two more US water utilities, threaten safety of Colorado residents
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.
