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.
Twice-Deported Illegal Alien Triggers Hijack Alert on United Flight After Rushing Cockpit: DHS
French novelist who wrote about Muslim-leftist takeover charged with hate speech for ‘Great Replacement’ comments
Democrats Are Turning on Each Other After Bizarre Absences Cause Hegseth Impeachment Effort to Fail
Wes Moore’s military record under renewed scrutiny after Army supervisor disputes his Afghanistan combat claims
Trump 45 alumni get behind a new name for press secretary
Hegseth could face new impeachment push over Ukraine aid, lawmakers warn
Ilhan Omar appears clueless on basis for federal probes: ‘You probably have more details on that’
Cruise Ship Returns to Texas Port Shortly After Departure When Murder Victim Is Discovered On Board
Multiple Kennedy family members seek to join legal battle against Trump’s triumphal arch
10 Serial Killers Among Those Whose Sentences Were Commuted by Gavin Newsom
‘He blamed the Jews’: GOP congressman levels explosive accusation against JD Vance over election postmortem
Russia and Ukraine settle on large prisoner swap after no major developments from talks
Secretary Scott Bessent moved to military base over Iran threats and more top headlines
Slain New Jersey mom’s bedroom furniture removed by investigators months after unsolved stabbing
FIRST ON FOX: Supreme Court justices confront what it will take to keep America’s founding freedoms alive
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.
Twice-Deported Illegal Alien Triggers Hijack Alert on United Flight After Rushing Cockpit: DHS
French novelist who wrote about Muslim-leftist takeover charged with hate speech for ‘Great Replacement’ comments
Democrats Are Turning on Each Other After Bizarre Absences Cause Hegseth Impeachment Effort to Fail
Wes Moore’s military record under renewed scrutiny after Army supervisor disputes his Afghanistan combat claims
Trump 45 alumni get behind a new name for press secretary
Hegseth could face new impeachment push over Ukraine aid, lawmakers warn
Ilhan Omar appears clueless on basis for federal probes: ‘You probably have more details on that’
Cruise Ship Returns to Texas Port Shortly After Departure When Murder Victim Is Discovered On Board
Multiple Kennedy family members seek to join legal battle against Trump’s triumphal arch
10 Serial Killers Among Those Whose Sentences Were Commuted by Gavin Newsom
‘He blamed the Jews’: GOP congressman levels explosive accusation against JD Vance over election postmortem
Russia and Ukraine settle on large prisoner swap after no major developments from talks
Secretary Scott Bessent moved to military base over Iran threats and more top headlines
Slain New Jersey mom’s bedroom furniture removed by investigators months after unsolved stabbing
FIRST ON FOX: Supreme Court justices confront what it will take to keep America’s founding freedoms alive
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.
