Julián Castro dismantles Meghan McCain’s ‘right-wing talking point’ after she claims Democrats want open borders

The View’s Meghan McCain on Thursday confronted Democratic candidate Julián Castro on his plan to end family separations at the border by decriminalizing border crossings and adjudicating those cases in civil court. The conservative host said Castro’s plan is akin to “open borders” — a claim the Democratic candidate dismissed as a “right-wing talking point.”

Speaking on “The View,” Castro discussed his plan to repeal Section 1325, the section of Title 8 of the United States Code that allows federal authorities to charge immigrants with a misdemeanor for crossing into the U.S. without proper documentation. Castro repeatedly mentioned Section 1325 at Wednesday’s Democratic debate, and used it as a sticking point during a tense exchange with fellow Texan Beto O’Rourke.

“If you decriminalize, aren’t you calling for open borders, and how can you enforce any rules if there are no repercussions for doing something illegal?” McCain asked Castro on Thursday.

“Well, there would be repercussions,” Castro, who served as Housing and Urban Development secretary under former President Barack Obama, replied. “Somebody is still in the court system. They’re still subject to be deported if that’s the determination of the court. So what’s the difference between somebody charged with a misdemeanor crime, and somebody charged with a civil violation? At the end of the day, they’re still in that civil court process, and they may well be deported.”

“So this is not open borders,” he continued. “That’s a right-wing talking point.”

Castro tried to continue, but McCain cut him off.

“With all due respect, sir, I don’t think it’s a right-wing talking point when you are saying that someone who is doing something illegal, that there shouldn’t be ramifications,” she said before turning the conversation to Democrats’ supposed need to garner support from voters like her. “At a certain point, if you become a general election candidate against Trump, you’re going to have to win over people like me who are skeptical of this.”

“And how can we possibly say that we have open borders when we have 654 miles of fences, thousands of personnel at the border?” Castro asked. “We have planes. We have boats. We have helicopters. We have guns. We have security cameras and states like my home state of Texas that put an extra $800 million into border security. We can maintain a secure border, and people are still subject to the law, but what I don’t believe we should do is criminalize desperation. We should criminalize crime, and the point that I made last night was if we’re concerned about human trafficking or drug trafficking, we already have laws to criminalize that and hold people accountable for that. That’s section and apart from section 1325 of that act.”

McCain replied that she’s “just confused about what the difference is between you and Beto” on immigration.

“Well … he would keep section 1325 in place, and if you keep that in place, then the ability to separate those families stays in place,” Castro replied. “In other words, you’re still going to have family separation because you’re going to incarcerate the parents and separate them from their children.”

Watch the video below, via ABC: