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.
Dem Robert Garcia Explains Rationale Behind Weaponizing Government: ‘Maybe It’s Because I’m Gay’
New Michigan Mayor’s Swearing-In Shows How Far State Has Fallen
House GOP leaders block Massie’s Hegseth impeachment push
Ilhan Omar huddles with her DC-based lawyers during her first day back on Capitol Hill amid federal probes
Iran-backed terror suspects plotted attack on US troops using vans packed with fuel, DOJ says
Breaking: House Republicans Elect New Leader to Replace Mike Johnson
Jim Jordan picked as next House GOP leader: Sound off!
Top Dem cries ‘weaponization’ as comments warning young people not to join Trump admin land her in hot water
Watch: Van Jones Revealed Low-Key Org Weapon Dems Used to Win Nov 3 – Hit up to 300 Million People Daily, GOP Never Uncovered
Habeas corpus cases near 100,000 as ICE detainees seize on new way to fight detention
Ex-Massachusetts police officer convicted of murdering pregnant woman in staged suicide
Sotomayor lets loose on conservative Supreme Court with revealing wish: ‘Crazy things’
Mamdani makes behind-the-scenes moves to shape 2028 Democratic presidential race
Prominent Christian Apologist Wes Huff Asks for Prayer After His 3-Year-Old Daughter Is Rushed to the Hospital
Rapist Russell Brand Declared to be ‘Dead Man Walking’ in Hellish UK Prison, Ex-Inmate Says He’ll Be ‘a Marked Man’
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.
Dem Robert Garcia Explains Rationale Behind Weaponizing Government: ‘Maybe It’s Because I’m Gay’
New Michigan Mayor’s Swearing-In Shows How Far State Has Fallen
House GOP leaders block Massie’s Hegseth impeachment push
Ilhan Omar huddles with her DC-based lawyers during her first day back on Capitol Hill amid federal probes
Iran-backed terror suspects plotted attack on US troops using vans packed with fuel, DOJ says
Breaking: House Republicans Elect New Leader to Replace Mike Johnson
Jim Jordan picked as next House GOP leader: Sound off!
Top Dem cries ‘weaponization’ as comments warning young people not to join Trump admin land her in hot water
Watch: Van Jones Revealed Low-Key Org Weapon Dems Used to Win Nov 3 – Hit up to 300 Million People Daily, GOP Never Uncovered
Habeas corpus cases near 100,000 as ICE detainees seize on new way to fight detention
Ex-Massachusetts police officer convicted of murdering pregnant woman in staged suicide
Sotomayor lets loose on conservative Supreme Court with revealing wish: ‘Crazy things’
Mamdani makes behind-the-scenes moves to shape 2028 Democratic presidential race
Prominent Christian Apologist Wes Huff Asks for Prayer After His 3-Year-Old Daughter Is Rushed to the Hospital
Rapist Russell Brand Declared to be ‘Dead Man Walking’ in Hellish UK Prison, Ex-Inmate Says He’ll Be ‘a Marked Man’
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.
