Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is so far ahead of the rest of the Democratic field, there are already rumors about who would run as her Vice Presidential nominee.
According to The Hill, she may ask Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, and for his part, he’s hinted that he is on the shortlist as a potential VP.
Castro – the former Mayor of San Antonio, Texas – is currently involved with the Partnership for a New American Economy. That group advocates for immigration reform through a path to citizenship and to increase opportunities for immigrants to enter the American workforce. Castro also endorsed two immigration bills put forth by GOP presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).
But it turns out Castro’s pro-immigration agenda may have a foot in both the Democratic and GOP ring, depending on how things pan out in the upcoming general election.
His organization – Partnership for a New American Economy – has been a supporter of the Gang of Eight Immigration Bill and the I-Squared Bill, both put forth by Rubio.
The Gang of Eight Immigration Bill failed to pass the House in 2013, after many Republicans criticized it as a pro-amnesty move.
“The Schumer-Rubio bill was a disaster – any attempt to pack so many different things into one piece of legislation is a mistake, regardless of the topic. And the substance was bad in any case – immediate legalization in exchange for promises of future enforcement is a recipe for repeating the 1986 debacle, where the amnesty happened and the enforcement promises were abandoned,” said Mark Krikorian, Executive Direction for the Center of Immigration Studies.
He added, “And worse was Schumer-Rubio’s dramatic increases in immigration, when what we need, as Sen. Sessions has written, is ‘immigration moderation.’”
Earlier this year Rubio – along with two other Republican senators, joined three Democrats and introduced the I-Squared immigration bill that would increase the number of foreign workers for the tech industry.
However, there is already a surplus of American tech workers currently seeking job opportunities, as Breitbart News previously reported.
“It is understandable why these corporations push for legislation that will flood the labor market and keep pay low; what is not understandable is why we would ever consider advancing legislation that provides jobs for the citizens of other countries at the expense of our own,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) previously wrote to lawmakers criticizing the legislation. “Who do we work for?”
Krikorian told Breitbart News the I-Squared bill isn’t much better than the Gang of Eight bill.
“We have no need for more tech immigration – in fact, our existing vehicles for skilled immigration need to be tightened up so we admit only genuine geniuses and Einsteins, and not the mass of average, or even below-average, people we’re getting now,” he explained.
Rubio is now the only GOP presidential candidate pushing for a pathway to citizenship, as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who hasn’t yet formally announced his White House bid, backed off of the immigration issue after the Gang of Eight legislation failed.
“The pathway to citizenship isn’t a real obstacle,” Krikorian said, adding “that’s a future discussion since the main problem is to make sure we stop future illegal immigration, and no one believes Rubio is interested in that.”
Breitbart News reached out to HUD spokesperson Brian Sullivan who said, “This is unrelated to our work” as it is political in nature.
Krikorian said he doesn’t have much to say about Castro’s possible VP run, other than to point out that “immigration is less of a right-left issue than an up-down issue – elites in both parties have pretty much the same views on immigration.”
Breitbart News has not received comment from Castro on whether or not he is worried about a potential conflict if Rubio and Clinton were to face each other in the general election.