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.
Luigi Mangione’s team fires back at plea deal report, calls leaks threat to fair trial
Charlie Kirk judge to rule on Tyler Robinson’s attempt to have potential death penalty removed
John Bolton Set to Take Plea Deal: Report
WATCH: AOC lashes out at Trump for ‘betrayal’ of voters after key SCOTUS immigration rulings
WATCH: Kellyanne Conway insists socialist primary victories don’t reflect American values nationwide
Trump nominates Chris Klomp for HHS deputy secretary, calls him ‘a potential STAR’
Muslim Mamdani-backed socialist primary winner suggested America deserved 9/11 in unearthed video
Democrats ditch the ‘Valleycrat’ playbook in bid to topple California GOP congressman
Illegal immigrant gets eight year prison sentence for $89 million payroll tax fraud scheme
The business of suing the federal government
Slotkin says Democratic Party needs ‘new leadership’: ‘Old models are no longer working’
Trump administration pledges $150M in aid, deploys Navy warships after deadly Venezuela earthquakes
Florida executes 74-year-old for wife’s murder, becoming oldest inmate put to death in state’s modern history
A Warning Charlie Kirk Gave Back in 2020 Coming True Now Within Democratic Party
French citizen who illegally cast ballot in 2022 midterms says New Jersey automatically registered him to vote
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.
Luigi Mangione’s team fires back at plea deal report, calls leaks threat to fair trial
Charlie Kirk judge to rule on Tyler Robinson’s attempt to have potential death penalty removed
John Bolton Set to Take Plea Deal: Report
WATCH: AOC lashes out at Trump for ‘betrayal’ of voters after key SCOTUS immigration rulings
WATCH: Kellyanne Conway insists socialist primary victories don’t reflect American values nationwide
Trump nominates Chris Klomp for HHS deputy secretary, calls him ‘a potential STAR’
Muslim Mamdani-backed socialist primary winner suggested America deserved 9/11 in unearthed video
Democrats ditch the ‘Valleycrat’ playbook in bid to topple California GOP congressman
Illegal immigrant gets eight year prison sentence for $89 million payroll tax fraud scheme
The business of suing the federal government
Slotkin says Democratic Party needs ‘new leadership’: ‘Old models are no longer working’
Trump administration pledges $150M in aid, deploys Navy warships after deadly Venezuela earthquakes
Florida executes 74-year-old for wife’s murder, becoming oldest inmate put to death in state’s modern history
A Warning Charlie Kirk Gave Back in 2020 Coming True Now Within Democratic Party
French citizen who illegally cast ballot in 2022 midterms says New Jersey automatically registered him to vote
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.
