MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Joaquin Castro

Interview

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HAYES: On Saturday, Trump unveiled what he casts as a compromise to end  the shutdown though he did not consult with any of the relevant parties  with whom he would be compromising. The President deals instead hammering  out between himself, his vice-president, and his own son-in-law. What  Trump offered in exchange for $5.7 billion for his border wall was  temporary protections for a limited number of formerly protected immigrants, immigrants the Trump administration  itself has taken steps to throw into limbo. The far right greeted the  proposal as some grand betrayal. Ann Coulter tweeting, "Trump proposes  amnesty. We voted for Trump and got Jeb."

Remember, Trump reversed course and insisted on this shutdown in order to  appease Coulter and others on the far right, which prompted Democratic  lawmaker Jackie Speier to plead with Coulter to give Trump permission to  reopen the government, although no luck just yet.

Mitch McConnell, for his part, plans to bring Trump`s offer up for a vote  this week, although he said that the deal has to be worked out with  Democrats and the White House. And it`s exceedingly likely to get the 60  votes necessary to pass the Senate.

Not a single Democratic lawmaker has said they support Trump offer, and the  party remains unified around a very simple message: stop holding the  American people hostage and reopen the government, and then we can  negotiate.

Joining me now for more on where the Democrats state, Congressmen Joaquin  Castro, Democrat of Texas. The president basically give us the money, the  $5.6 -- $5.7 billion, and we will  temporarily protect a variety of classes of immigrants that we have put in  jeopardy, Haitians with temporary protected status, Hondurans and DACA  recipients. What`s your response to that?

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO, (D) TEXAS: Well, the first thing is that it wasn`t a  serious offer. First of all, basically every part of that proposal was  rejected last year. And as you mentioned the president is holding hostage  the paychecks of hundreds of thousands of government workers in order to  get a wall that most people in America, and in my state of Texas, don`t  want.

And so he should reopen the government. We should be able to reopen the  government as the senate voted -- a Republican senate voted to keep it open  in December and then the House voted in January on the same thing -- we  should be able to reopen the government and then negotiate.

And also, Chris, people have been asking, well, what`s the compromise?  Well, if you think about it, the purpose of a border wall is for border  security. So we know that adding a border wall to these rural areas of the  border is not the most effective strategy. In fact, this past week we saw,  I think it was 376 migrants tunnel under a portion of the border wall and  then present themselves to CBP officers to be considered for asylum.

So the compromise, I think, is more money for border security that doesn`t  include a wall, including technology that would be anti-tunneling  technology to detect these kinds of things.

HAYES: OK. So, if that`s the compromise, though, then there`s two  messages here, right. Because right now Democrats are saying there is no compromise. We will not be taken hostage. This is an unreasonable 
approach to governing. Open the government based on the bills that pass the senate 
unanimously and are out in the House and they`re just sitting there, and then we`ll talk about whatever you want to talk about. That`s one position.

The other is, some kind of deal where we do border security, but not the  wall and that`s what we  strike to get the government reopened. Which is it?

CASTRO: No, I think that we should reopen the government and then we can  talk further about border security.

HAYES: And that`s the position of the Democratic caucus. And are there  cracks in that if we  go into -- I mean, people are in real trouble, obviously, federal workers  and also there`s food inspections not happening, environmental sites are  going without being inspected, national parks being torn to  shreds. I mean, is there a point at which the cracks start to show up in  the Democratic caucus?

CASTRO: Well, a rational, reasonable president would not be doing this.  And the problem that we have is that they`re going to be other things like  the debt ceiling that will come up, and the budget again. And so if you  show Donald Trump that he can -- if you affirm to him that he can hold you  hostage for $5 billion for a wall, then he will probably do it again when  the debt ceiling comes up or  when the next budget comes up, and that`s the problem.

HAYES: Right. So you see it -- and this is something that I`ve been told  by numerous Democratic lawmakers on both sides of Capitol Hill, it`s almost  existential, like you cannot negotiate under these conditions, because the  incentives for what it produces from the White House going forward are just  untenable.

CASTRO: Yeah, I mean, this is somebody who once he finds a way to get his  way, even though the overwhelming majority of people disagree with him, he  will keep going back to that. And that`s the danger here.

HAYES: So, I want to get your reaction to this threat tweet of his. He  says, "no, amnesty is not part of my offer," the president. "It is a three  year extension of DACA. Amnesty will be used only on a much bigger deal,  whether immigration or something else" -- I don`t understand that --  "likewise, there will be no big push to remove the 11 million plus people  who are here illegally, but be careful, Nancy."

Do you read that as a threat to start to move to deport the 11 million  people here?

CASTRO: Well, I think that it`s a threat that he`s already tried to  deliver on. He tried to go after the DACA recipients, the Dreamers, and  the courts have held him up.

HAYES: Right.

CASTRO: So yeah, I think he would continue to do that, absolutely. He`s  tried to go after the TPS holders, for example, again, it`s in the courts.  So, yes, I think the president is intent on churning up his deportation  machine and he`ll keep at it.

HAYES: How much communication is there inside the Democratic caucus on the  House side about holding the line on this? Because the speaker has to hold  together a big new majority caucus. It`s the first thing she`s doing. How  much are you talking to leadership? How much are they talking to you?

CASTRO: Almost every day, especially when we`re in Washington. Folks are  talking to each other. You know, it`s tough, especially for the freshmen  members that have just come in, some of them have never served in an  elected position before. So, it`s a very strange position…

HAYES: Or in an open government.

CASTRO: Yeah, that`s right. It`s been closed down since they came in in  January.

So yeah, I mean so I think that`s kind of tough. But I think we`re doing  what we need to hold the line there.

HAYES: I haven`t seen any cracks myself. Joaquin Castro, many thanks.

CASTRO: Thank you.

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