The Lead with Jake Tapper: Rep. Joaquin Castro, (D- TX), Is Interviewed About Border Barriers

Interview

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I mean, what I saw, Jake, were drowning devices were basically death traps. You go right up to this gate, and there's razor wire right beyond that on the banks of the river. And the wire is placed in areas where the water comes above it and people can basically get stuck on it, bump right into it. And then there are these barrel traps that we saw that are placed in the water that are being called buoys, but they've got a kind of chainsaw device right in the middle of them. So these things are clearly meant to injure and to hurt and to kill people possibly, that come into contact with them.

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Sure. No. And look, I think there's a few things we can agree on. Number one, it is best for people and safest for people to cross at a port of entry. But it's also true that throughout American history there have been people, families, and others that are so desperate that they try to make it across the river.

And what the governor has done is inhumane in two ways. First, where he's placed the razor wire in the barrel trap is in an area that forces migrants to swim in a deeper part of the water. In other words, he's forcing them to go to a deeper part of the water where they may drown. If, however, they encounter those buoys and that razor wire, then he's creating an incredibly dangerous situation for people.

And so really the issue is, we know that some people, despite our warnings, are going to try to make it across the river. The question as Americans, as people who consider ourselves moral persons, is how do you treat them? Do you treat them like people or do you treat them like animals? There's a right way to do things in a wrong way, and this is all wrong.

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That's true. Every country is allowed to have a border. The United States has a border. In fact, we've never dedicated more resources to the border than we do right now. And I'll give you specifically, we have three or four times the number of border patrol agents patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border than we did 20 years ago. We have drones on the border. We have anti-tunneling technology at the border. So we have billions and billions of dollars of resources at the border right now. So there is still this question about how you treat people. Do you treat them humanely or do you treat them like animals? Greg Abbott is treating them like animals.

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I think that we're going to see what we've seen throughout history, which is you do have some spikes at times, you have highs and lows. You know, the question is, well, what do you do with that? I think one of the things and what we heard today from local officials in Eagle Pass and community members is that the administration and those in Congress do need to provide as much support to local communities like Eagle Pass, El Paso, Laredo, and others McAllen, that are right on the border and are bearing the brunt of this influx.

But as you said, border crossings are way down since the end of Title 42. So this invasion that Republicans talked about, this huge, you know, swath or swarm of migrants that was going to come, that never happened. It never materialized. And yet, they use that to create fear and use it as their number one boogeyman issue with the American people.

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A few things. Number one, he's talking about a kind of racial or ethnic profiling of people. And if Ron DeSantis was ever to become President and implemented that policy, it's likely that it would not only harm migrants, but would actually end up harming a bunch of people, brown skinned people who are American citizens. So it's very dangerous. But the second thing is, Jake, I don't think Ron DeSantis is ever going to be President of the United States. His campaign is going nowhere. He's trying to imitate Donald Trump and it's very pathetic.

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Good to be with you.

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