Monday on MSNBC’s “All In,” 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful and former HUD Secretary Julián Castro criticized the Trump administration’s decision to invoke a rule preventing those here legally from receiving some forms of government assistance.

Castro told “All In” fill-in host Ali Velshi he saw the Trump administration’s policy prescription as being motivated with a goal of having a “white, wealthier nation.”

“I don’t think anything is different,” Castro said. “I think you know, when you look at this generation of immigrants, they are every bit as entrepreneurial, they’re every bit as hard-working, they believe in the country every bit as much as anybody else. And so I think the point that needs to be asked is why is Donald Trump so interested in cutting off this generation of immigrants? And it goes back to what he’s displayed from the beginning of his political career from birtherism to the way he started his campaign, to those comments about the Mexican-American judge, to his comments about Ilhan Omar and her colleagues. He wants a whiter, wealthier nation. That’s what he’s interested in.”

The Texas Democrat doubled down on his claim later in the segment.

“There’s an ulterior motive that this president has which is that he wants to create a country in his own image,” Castro added. “He wants to kill the ability of both undocumented immigrants and in this case, legal immigrants to actually participate in American life. And I think that he hopes that more of them are never going to apply or be able to apply to become permanent residents and therefore get on a pathway to citizenship. You can connect the dots between this to that citizenship question on the census that the administration so badly wants, to all of the actions that he’s taking at the border that are cruel, separating families. It’s one consistent show of a president who is a racist and basically wants a whiter wealthier nation.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor