With Bernie Sanders official running for president, Hillary Clinton deciding not to run a third time, and Joe Biden still thinking about a run in 2020, does Julian Castro have a clear road ahead to the Democratic presidential nomination?
Like most of the other announced Democratic presidential candidates, Castro is a progressive. But unlike his competition, he could have the advantage with immigration reform.
Just because he is of Hispanic descent doesn’t mean that he owns the issue, but if he can find nuanced ways of addressing the ongoing border issue and appeal to the greater immigration debate, then Castro has the upper hand.
Castro recently reiterated to the Texas Tribune that he was in favor of abolishing ICE, saying that he was in “favor” of “breaking it apart, reconstituting it.”
Castro, who has already stated that he wanted to reconstitute the Homeland Security agency, says that there is “always” going to be enforcement of immigration law, and supports abolishing ICE, if effective change throughout the agency occurs to ensure it acts “more humane in the way it treats people.”
"If what people mean by abolishing ICE is that we’re not going to have any enforcement anymore, then ‘no.’ We’re always going to have enforcement. What they mean is, is it going to look different, from what it looks like right now, is it going to be more effected, is it going to be more humane in the way that it treats people, then absolutely ‘yes.’"-Julian Castro
A July 2018 poll conducted by POLITICO/ Morning Consulting shows that the overwhelming majority of Americans opposed abolishing ICE.
