Border, health top Castro’s strategy
Presidential hopeful takes ‘Face the Nation’ stage
Presidential hopeful Julián Castro took his case to “Face the Nation” Sunday morning, one day after announcing his candidacy at the West Side’s Plaza Guadalupe.
The former San Antonio mayor criticized President Donald Trump’s leadership on immigration, telling host Margaret Brennan that the president has failed on the issue and is now trying to stoke his political base by talking about the need for a wall.
“What I believe is he’s created a tragedy at the border,” Castro said. “His policy of separating children from their parents and the terrible way that the Customs and Border Protection has managed its responsibilities, including the deaths of two children within the last few weeks, that’s a real tragedy.”
Two Guatemalan children — an 8-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl — died 17 days apart in federal custody in December, prompting agency investigations into the circumstances that led to the deaths.
Castro said he would stop the practice of detaining asylum-seekers and push for comprehensive immigration reform, which he said is necessary to address the country’s broken system.
“Well what I believe we can do … (is) to look at things like ankle monitors, so that we’re able to monitor where people are in the country and ensure that they report back when they need to, and that they’re a part of legal proceedings,” Castro said.
He said his plan for immigration reform would include “smart, effective” border security and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the country who
have otherwise followed the law.
Castro, who also led the Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama, said most Americans support a universal health care system, and he would consider increasing taxes for the wealthiest Americans and corporations to support new domestic spending.
“I’m under no illusion that accomplishing something like Medicare For All would be easy,” Castro said, “but I do believe that in this nation — in the richest nation on earth — that not a single person should be without health care when they need it.”
When pressed for how the government would pay for the program, Castro said his campaign would release plans in the near future.
“I think that we can consider different ways, different proposals to be able to raise more revenue from the wealthiest corporations,” he said.