With recent news that Obama’s will begin pushing for immigration reform in 2013, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro joined PoliticsNation to discuss how that compromise should work, and to highlight ways he thinks the Republican party is confused about its recent loss.
He criticized the GOP for claiming that tone, rather than policy, is the reason most Latino voters rejected Romney. He says Republicans like Dick Armey, Ted Cruz, and Bobby Jindal–all of whom believe it was simply bad messaging that got the GOP off track–are “so indicative of where the Republican party is right now.”
“What they’re not getting is that it’s not just about changing their tone,” he says. “It’s also about fundamentally changing the policies that they embrace. Being more willing to engage in conversations and discussions and actually get comprehensive immigration reform done.”
Castro emphasized that a truly comprehensive immigration reform package needs to include a pathway to citizenship for the millions of immigrants already here, many ingrained in their communities, and pointed out that Latinos need to be treated as part of the larger American family, rather than outsiders. “When they think about the Latino community you can tell in both in tone and in policy, that they think of it as something foreign,” he said of Republicans. “We have Latinos who have been here for generations,” he said. “They bring the same faith, the same values, the same work ethic that make America great–in fact, they have been part of making America great. And so during this debate we have in Congress I hope that folks will recognize that this community that they’re talking about is a community that has been contributing greatly to the success of the United States.”
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