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In Nashua, Castro Says Dems Can't 'Squirm' on Immigration Policy

Jason Moon / NHPR
Julian Castro speaks at Nashua Community College

Presidential candidate Julian Castro is making another campaign swing through New Hampshire this week -- his first since last month's televised Democratic debate.

The former San Antonio mayor and secretary of Housing and Urban Development is making immigration a focus of his campaign.

Speaking to voters at Nashua Community College on Thursday night, Castro argued that President Trump believes immigration is a winning issue for him.

Credit Jason Moon / NHPR

“And because he thinks he's going to win the election on this issue, I think that the best policy is not to run and hide and squirm and feel like we just can't do anything on immigration,” said Castro. “No, we have to give the American people a strong positive alternative for fixing the broken system that we have.”

Castro's immigration plan includes making illegal border crossing a civil rather than criminal offense and investing in Central and South American countries to reduce the number of economic migrants heading north.

Castro also used the event to respond to recent racist tweets from President Donald Trump.

“This election is all about whether we're going to give in to the dark hearts of some, whose vision for this country is narrow and exclusive. Or whether we're going to move forward as a nation that continues to expand opportunity to everybody.”

Jason Moon is a senior reporter and producer on the Document team. He has created longform narrative podcast series on topics ranging from unsolved murders, to presidential elections, to secret lists of police officers.
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