Julian Castro has made it clear he doesn’t like Trump’s immigration policies. According to Castro it’s such a disaster, that a virtue-signaling campaign photo op with asylum seekers would fix everything.

“Presidential candidate Julián Castro on Monday escorted a group of asylum seekers across the border bridge to his native Texas from Mexico, where they had been sent under the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy.

Walking across the bridge with Castro were eight gay and lesbian asylum seekers from Cuba, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as a deaf Salvadoran woman and her three relatives.”

And so they all lived happily ever after right? Wrong.

First of all, every single person in that group had ALREADY tried to gain asylum previously. Secondly, this would be essentially their third attempt at crossing into the US with the hopes of staying there instead of being sent back to Mexico to the detention facilities there. Third, it seems that most if not all of the group is already waiting court hearings.

So why the photo op? Well, Beto did one! Cory “Spartacus” Booker did one! So Julian had to make an attempt to outdo two of his rivals, and hopefully gain enough traction to make it onto the next debate stage.

The problem is, his staged photo op didn’t exactly work out. All twelve of those seeking asylum were back in Mexico by the end of the day. Dany, a lesbian, wasn’t happy with the situation. 

“Dany was upset when she was returned to the camp at dusk. As migrants gathered, she told them that the U.S. official who had interviewed her by phone had been unsympathetic.

“I told him I was in danger in Matamoros. That didn’t matter to him,” she said. “There’s no asylum for anyone … the system is designed to end with us leaving.””

Dany is from Cuba. I wouldn’t want to stay in Cuba either. Yet, unless she can truly show persecution because of religion, nationality, race, political opinion, or membership in a social group… being a lesbian doesn’t fit that criteria. Another of the twelve is deaf. A physical infirmity is also not a criteria for asylum.

Does Julian Castro care about those semantics? Nope. He got his photo op. And the firm involved with the group got to whine about it on Twitter.

BREAKING: We just heard the terrible news that all 12 of our clients escorted by @JulianCastro were sent back to Mexico. This is of course a mockery of due process. Here is our statement on the matter:#LetThemIn

— Texas Civil Rights Project (@TXCivilRights) October 7, 2019

AND the Texas Civil Rights Project is honestly trying to tell us that because that group is being persecuted in the detention camp, they are eligible for asylum!

Non-refoulement is when an asylum-seeker or refugee cannot be sent back to the last country they were in because they are subject to persecution there.

— Texas Civil Rights Project (@TXCivilRights) October 7, 2019

That is some serious splitting of hairs regarding the rules and regulations of asylum seekers!

Here’s a question: Why aren’t those asylum seekers asking to apply at a consulate or embassy? Why aren’t they asking their attorneys with the Texas Civil Rights project to drive them to the consulates that are less than half a day away to apply for asylum? Short answer is, it doesn’t fit with the Trump Immigration BAD! narrative.

For Donald Trump, the cruelty is the point.

His immigration agenda has created the conditions on our border—conditions only bound to get worse. We are better than this. pic.twitter.com/Uq57Ubc8XZ

— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) October 7, 2019

You know what is cruel? Using people for a photo op that you know damned good and well wasn’t going to be successful. Oh well, sucks to be them. Will it give Julian the desired bounce he wants for his campaign? I doubt it. But at least he persisted!

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Feature Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey at Flickr, cropped and modified