We Shouldn't Sleep on Julian Castro
Image: www.orangeleader.com / Edited by: Halima Jibril
Julián Castro said something recently that has stayed with me and has made me think a lot about this presidential election - “we need a nominee that can resonate in the African American and Latinx communities.”
After nearly four years under a presidency that has targeted and intentionally hurt communities and people of color, it’s about time that we start focusing on what those who have been truly dehumanized and victimized needs. What do they need and out of all the Democratic candidates, who truly has their best interests at heart and has a track record to prove it? By writing this article, I hope to help people out by telling them about a candidate who I believe has my best interest at heart as a woman and a person of color. So, who is the presidential candidate with the highest ratio of contributions from women with 57% and who raised $800,000 in 10 days to stay in the presidential race?
Julián Castro is the sole Latino and Texan candidate in the presidential race. He was the first candidate to release in-depth, expansive policy plans on immigration, policing and the lead crisis with high praise from experts and activists. Out of all the candidates, he has the highest ratio of contributions from women with 57%, and in 10 days he was able to raise $800,000 in donations to stay in the presidential race. So why is no one talking about him?
I think it has to do mostly with the lack of media attention. Most of that attention went to fellow Texan, Beto O’Rourke before he dropped out of the race, and even though Castro hasn’t had nearly as much talk time during the debates as the other candidates, what he has been able to say has been part of the debate highlights. With that being said, let’s talk about who he is and where he stands on issues.
Julián (and his twin brother, Joaquin) was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. His mother is a political activist and his father is a retired math teacher. His mother raised him alone after his parents separated when he was 8 years old. After graduating high school, he attended Stanford University where he discovered his passion for public service and after interning at the White House under Bill Clinton’s presidency, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science and communications. This decision isn’t surprising since both of his parents were involved in the Chicano Rights Movement. His mother, more specifically, helped establish the Chicano political party, La Raza Unida and (like Castro would later do himself) she ran for the San Antonio City Council in 1971. After Stanford, he attended and graduated from Harvard with a Juris Doctor. A cute fact to throw in is, his twin brother went to Stanford and Harvard alongside him and they even opened their own law firm together. Like previously stated, Castro ran and was elected for San Antonio City Council in 2001, making him the youngest in San Antonio history at 26 years old. He was then elected San Antonio mayor and was in office from 2009 until 2014, when he accepted the U.S Secretary of Housing and Urban Development position under Barack Obama’s presidency. Since announcing his run for the presidency in January 2019, he has released expansive policy plans and impressed Democratic debate viewers when he was the first candidate to include trans people in the talk of reproductive rights and mentioned victims of police violence by name. Let’s get into where he stands on most talked about issues.
Immigration is something that Casto’s campaign has focused on greatly and like previously stated, he was the first candidate to release an in-depth, expansive policy plan on this issue which makes sense considering it’s personal. Castro’s grandmother immigrated to the United States from Mexico with her sister when they were orphaned as children. During the Democratic debates, Castro was heavily praised when he said, “We shouldn’t criminalize desperation.” Based on that quote alone, one can see where he stands. His policy plan focuses on how he wants to decriminalize illegal immigration and make it a civil offence instead. From the jump, he states that he wants to create a pathway to make it easier for people to get citizenship and stresses that “we can still have border security but treat people with common sense and compassion instead of cruelty.” Castro wants to focus on family reunification and wants to eliminate for-profit immigrant detention centres and immigrant detention as a whole, except for serious cases.
Take some time to read his People First Immigration policy.
Castro was the first candidate to put forward legislation that would reform the policing system in America and was the first candidate to mention the victims of police violence by name. Most recently, the Black Lives Matter Movement reached out to every Democratic candidate and Castro was the first candidate to spend the day with them. He recognizes and has been vocal on how racism has had a large part in this country’s policing and wants to deal with this, by ensuring police departments not only have training but have pre-employment screenings that would prevent the hiring of racist and intolerant officers. One of the main takeaways from Castro’s plan is his call to end qualified immunity which is used to protect the bad actions of police officers. By doing this, Castro says it “will help black and brown communities because they’re the ones that are often the victims of police officers using excessive force.” He wants to establish “civilian oversight boards” which will give the community oversight of the police department and he wants to establish a database that tracks police officers who have been decertified and keeps a public record of shootings, so the public can see what is happening within police departments.
Take some time to read his People First Policing policy.
Right now in our country, there is an epidemic of mass shootings and an increase of shootings targeting people of color, especially Black and Latinx people, which we’ve seen in Charleston and El Paso. Even with the persistent outcry to create and pass gun control legislation, nothing is being done. Castro refuses to stand by and promises that on day one of his presidency, he will sign executive orders to end gun violence. What does he plan to do? Overall, Castro wants to make it harder for guns to go into the wrong hands by requiring background checks and a gun license. He wants to do a better job at combating domestic terrorism and white supremacy in our country that has increased under Trump’s presidency. Castro wants to close the many loopholes that the NRA has and wants to renew an assault weapon ban saying “weapons of war do not belong in the communities” and “were designed with the singular purpose of inflicting mass human casualties.” He also wants to make sure that those who have experienced gun violence get the mental healthcare they need.
Take some time to read his Disarming Hate policy.
Out of all of the policy plans on criminal justice, Castro’s is the most detailed, and has gotten high praise from criminal justice activists and experts. There are 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States right now and more than a half million of those are in for non-violent offences which the prison system uses to disproportionately target black and latinx people. Castro asks what kind of environments are people in that is leaving crime as the only option for them and what can we, as a nation, do to help prevent incarceration from being an option? He recognizes that nothing will change in the justice system, if we fail to acknowledge key factors like education, housing and gun safety. Castro focuses heavily on restorative justice and as president, pledges to do what he can to prevent people from being incarcerated. He wants to do this by ending the criminalization of youth and ending the cash bail system, which have both been used to disproportionately incarcerate the poor and people of color, he also wants to legalize marijuana and expunge the records of those with non-violent marijuana related offences as the state tries and sentences individuals. Castro believes it is also their responsibility to help an individual's reentry to society with Second Chance centers, access to education & job opportunities, restoration of voting rights and clemency for those who were incarcerated for non-violent offences.
Take some time to read his First Chance plan.
There are many plans that I had to leave out for the sake of making this article a reasonable length, but with what I did provide, I hope it makes you, the reader, curious on what else Julián Castro has to say and offer.
Curious about where Julián Castro stands on other issues? Read through his policy plans on his website.
By Blanca Reyes
(she/her)
Twitter : @blanca__star