Former President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Julian Castro, who announced he’s running for president over the weekend, said Sunday that President Trump has failed as a leader on immigration.
In an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Mr. Castro also called for the administration to stop detaining families requesting asylum.
“He’s a failed leader on this issue, and now he’s just trying to stoke his political base by bringing up the wall all the time,” Mr. Castro said. “And it’s just a failure of leadership all around. I would end this kind of family detention.
“The Democratic politician said as president he would invest in border security, which would include personnel, technology and comprehensive immigration reform.
Mr. Castro announced his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination from his hometown of San Antonio, Texas, on Saturday. The former San Antonio mayor, 44, said he would “make sure the promise of America is available to everyone in this 21st century.”
Viewed as a rising star in the Democratic Party, Mr. Castro joins two other announced candidates, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who entered the fray on Friday, and Rep. John Delaney of Maryland.
None of the three is viewed as a favorite for the party’s nomination in a field that could include better-known Democrats such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Bernard Sanders and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden.
Mr. Castro could also find himself only the second-best-known candidate from Texas if former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso enters the race.
“I am not a front-runner in this race, but I have not been a front-runner at any time in my life,” he said.
Mr. Castro, who tapped his twin brother, Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, to serve as his campaign chairman, drew headlines last week for bringing up the possibility of a 90 percent tax rate on the wealthiest Americans.
“There was a time in this country where the top marginal tax rate was over 90 percent,” Mr. Castro told ABC News. “Even during [former President Ronald] Reagan’s era in the 1980s, it was around 50 percent.”
Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens dismissed Mr. Castro’s bid as an effort to position himself as a vice presidential contender.
“Julian Castro has made history by becoming one of the biggest lightweights to ever run for president,” Mr. Ahrens tweeted. “He was a weak mayor who couldn’t even handle being HUD secretary. This is obviously just another desperate attempt to become someone else’s running mate.”
Ms. Gabbard, a favorite of liberal activists, bolstered her image in 2016 when she emerged as a vocal critic of the Democratic National Committee and resigned from her post as DNC vice chair to Mr. Sanders’ presidential bid.
An Iraq War veteran and the first Samoan American member of Congress, Ms. Gabbard told CNN her message will focus on strengthening health care, overhauling the criminal justice system and combating climate change.
“There is one main issue that is central to the rest, and that is the issue of war and peace,” Ms. Gabbard said in the interview with CNN host Van Jones. “I look forward to being able to get into this and to talk about it in depth when we make our announcement.”
Ms. Gabbard’s run would not be without controversy. In 2016, she alarmed fellow Democrats when she met with Donald Trump during his transition to president and later when she took a secret trip to Syria and met with President Bashar Assad, who has been accused of war crimes and genocide. She questioned whether he was responsible for a chemical attack on civilians that killed dozens and led the U.S. to attack a Syrian air base.
She said she doesn’t regret the trip and considers it important to meet with adversaries if “you are serious about pursuing peace.” She also noted that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was based on faulty intelligence and said that she wanted to understand the evidence of the Syria attack.
• This article is based in part on wire reports.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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