A growing list of 2020 Democrat candidates are visiting a youth migrant shelter in Florida, with some – such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) – visiting the facility hours before the first Democrat presidential debate in Miami.

The Homestead youth migrant shelter is less than an hour away from the Adrienne Arsht Center, where the debates will be held Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Warren was one of the first candidates on the scene, surprising many after telling a town hall audience Tuesday that she planned to visit the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children ahead of the debate Wednesday.

“We have to shut down that facility and shut it down now,” Warren told the audience.

As promised, she made a grand appearance donning a trucker hat reading, “Homestead.”

She tried to gain access to the facility but failed.

With that, her competitors are promising to visit the facility as well.

Beto O’Rourke (D). Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) are expected to visit Homestead on Thursday, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D), Julián Castro (D), Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Marianne Williamson will visit Friday.

The list continues to grow by the hour, with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) reportedly jumping on board as well.

Joe Biden (D) told a voter early in June that he was trying to set up a visit to Homestead, but there is no word on his plans as of yet.

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), however, beat all of his competitors to the punch, visiting the facility Monday and calling it a “privatized prison.”

 

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Today I visited the #Homestead Detention Facility. These children need homes, NOT a privatized prison. There are plenty of compassionate family members of these children and community members who would step up and help if allowed.

A post shared by Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) on Jun 24, 2019 at 2:15pm PDT

Left-wing actress turned activist Alyssa Milano visited the facility Wednesday morning and live-streamed her experience. She tried to gain entry but ultimately failed to do so.

As Breitbart News previously reported, the migrant youths – formally called Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) – typically spend an average of 36 days at the facility.

Most of the UAC teenagers at the center will be quickly sent to “sponsors” after officials have checked the potential sponsors for possible criminality, such as forced labor, prostitution, drug selling, and MS-13 links. The average stay is just 36 days, according to a June 19 HHS report.

However, it is not so straightforward. Many of the sponsors are family members or fellow illegal immigrants who “have paid cartel-linked coyotes to deliver their teenagers to the Homestead camp, via the border agencies,” Breitbart News reported.