In the latest sit down with Blavity Politics, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro discussed a wide array of issues such as immigration, reparations, as well as police reform. On top of serving in the Obama administration, he also severed as San Antonio's mayor from 2009-2014.
REPARATIONS
One of the larger points Castro has made on the campaign trail has been reparations for the descendants of enslaved people.
"If the government takes your property that’s considered a taking and they owe compensation," Castro said. "So why wouldn’t we compensate people who were actively sanctioned as property by the state or in this case their descendants? I believe that we should."
Despite not having a direct proposal on his campaign website, Castro has brought up the topic consistently arguing that payments should be made.
POLICE BRUTALITY
Another topic the 2020 candidate was not hesitant to bring up was policing reform — a topic he discusses on his website. Castro has called for the establishment of national standards for the conduct of police officers and for any department that refuses to enact the standards to have federal funding withheld.
"You have a lot of police officers that I believe are good individuals, they’re trying to do a good job, but I also think the system itself is out of order," Castro said. "The system itself is messed up."
IMMIGRATION
Being a presidential candidate, attempting to replace Donald Trump, immigration policies are drawn into even more scrutiny. Castro's immigration plan includes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people currently in the country and lifts Trump-era restrictions on the number of refugees allowed.
"My immigration plan has tried to look beyond these usual sort of boundaries that we have in our mind about immigration, and tries to address the situation that people find themselves in," Castro said. "[Situations where] people with brown skin, people with black skin, people with white skin that are caught up in this broken immigration system."
Currently, Castro is polling at 1.4 percent in the Real Clear Politics average and is fighting to keep up support in order to qualify for future debates.
Watch the full video below to see what else Castro had to share with the Blavity News team on the latest episode of The Sit Down.