The first Democratic Debate began with half of the 20 candidates who are currently running and no one has made a bolder move than Beto O’Rourke speaking in Spanish. Cory Booker followed suit some moments later but both them showed, once again, that speaking Spanish is hardly a useful antic for attracting voters (Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio had already proven this in 2016). It doesn’t help either that they don’t speak it very well (in the case of Booker. To be fair, O’Rourke speaks it fluently enough).
Both of them failed at providing specific measures they would take on their first days in office. But, to be fair, both of them went after Secretary Julián Castro, a hard act to follow given that Castro completely commands this issue, even having released his immigration policy early on in the race. When asked by Telemundo anchorman José Díaz-Balart, who recently interviewed president Trump, what his take on immigration was, Julián Castro laid out (in English) what he would specifically do on his first day in office. If he were president today, Castro said, he would, on day one, sign an executive order to get rid of the Zero Tolerance, the Remain (in Mexico), and the Metering policies, by which the US denies asylum seekers to enter the United States, an unprecedented and inhumane policy implemented by the Trump Administration. In Castro’s view, this Metering policy eventually lead to Salvadorian immigrant Oscar Martínez and his daughter Valeria, to die while attempting to cross the Rio Grande.
@juliancastrotx
Furthermore, Castro boldly and firmly stated the US needed to implement a Marshall plan for Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. He spoke of implementing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants inside the US and then challenged the rest of his colleagues to support the repeal of section 1325, an addition to the law that charges and prosecutes people who cross the border without papers. In other words, section 1325 treats immigrants like criminals and Castro wants to repeal that. Yet, none of the other candidates present, except for Tim Ryan, expressed their support for this repeal, specially not Beto O’Rourke who stuttered and struggled with Castro’s challenge.
@betorourke
Diaz-Balart addressed O’Rourke in Spanish, but Beto seems a bit unprepared. “Vamos a tratar cada persona con el respeto y dignidad que merecen como humanos… We would accept them into this country, we would not build walls”, he answered with a broad and imprecise speech that made him look bad and make Castro look even better. With O’Rourke having voted for Trump 70% of the time, this might be a deal-breaker for him as he really failed to connect with voters.
Cory Book spoke a very broken Spanish about reinstating DACA and supporting people who are on temporary protective status to remain in the US, as well as major investments in the Northern Triangle.
Voters will need to check the record of many of these candidates as some of them have been saying great things but a lot of it seems copied from Bernie Sanders.
The immigration issue has clearly been scattered in the debate. However, even though they claim to support a sensitive immigration policy, almost none of them address the issue at core: that the problem with immigration comes with a US foreign policy to destabilize foreign countries. The US intervened in El Salvador, Honduras (where Hillary Clinton supported a coup that overthrew president Zelaya) and Nicaragua in the past three decades. Surprise, surprise. Now you have a crisis at the US border. Julian Castro did, though. He really brought the policy to the table and gave an inspiring speech, starting in Spanish, but finishing in English, about a second generation Mexican-American who is running for president. Castro is a clear winner of the debate and his winning cry is a phrase we can all stand behind: Adiós, Donald Trump.
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