After Beto O’Rourke said his administration would “spare no expense” to reunite families separated at the U.S. border and would not criminally prosecute any family, Julián Castro pounced. | Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo 2020 Democratic Debates O’Rourke brushes off debate clash with Castro, gives himself an ‘A’

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke insisted on Thursday that he’d emerged from the first Democratic presidential debate unscathed, after he and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro went head to head during the previous night’s 10-candidate forum.

The two sparred over immigration policy, with O’Rourke’s fellow Texan going after him in the most heated exchange of the debate. After O’Rourke said his administration would “spare no expense” to reunite families separated at the U.S. border and would not criminally prosecute any family, Castro pounced. He blasted the former congressman for refusing to come out against a section of federal immigration law that criminalizes “illegal entry” into the United States.


Castro took it a step further in an interview after the debate, saying that O’Rourke “clearly hasn’t done his homework.”

O’Rourke pushed back on Thursday, saying that despite the exchange, he gave himself an “A” rating.

“No one’s worked harder to end the practice of family separation,” he said in an interview with CNN’s “New Day.” He cited his track record on immigration reform to back up his claim, pointing to efforts to help close the migrant facility in Tornillo, Texas, that has been dubbed a “tent city.”

“I co-sponsored legislation that would ensure any family fleeing persecution or violence, seeking asylum in this country, is not criminally prosecuted,” he continued. “In my administration, we will reunite every separated family, we will free Dreamers from any fear of deportation by making them U.S. citizens” — a reference to immigrants in the U.S. illegally who were brought to the country as children and are seeking a path to citizenship.

Asked by CNN what he made of Castro’s defense that Section 1325 of the U.S. Code, which makes it a misdemeanor for immigrants to enter the country without papers, actually allows for family separations, O’Rourke said, “He’s wrong on his characterization of family separation.”

“We don’t need cages, we don’t need to criminally prosecute families, we do not need laws,” he added, also remarking how his hometown of El Paso, on the U.S.-Mexico border, is one of the safest cities in the U.S. because of “respect and dignity.”

O’Rourke acknowledged that he was the target of attacks on the debate stage but shrugged off the aggressive tactics that played out the previous night in Miami, saying, “That’s part of politics.” He said he intended to continue his nonconfrontational approach.

On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” O’Rourke said: “I’m not running against anybody. I’m running for the United States of America.”

He did, however, go directly after President Donald Trump as a photo of a migrant father and daughter found dead along a bank of the Rio Grande went viral this week, and he commented on the haunting image again Thursday.

What’s important, he said on MSNBC, is “ensuring that there’s accountability for the children who have died within our custody and the practices that produced that heartbreaking image that we all saw of Oscar and Valeria yesterday crossing the Rio Grande, the 9 million green card holders and freeing Dreamers from fear of deportation.”

O’Rourke also dismissed online jeers and memes over his attempt to connect with Hispanic voters by speaking in Spanish during the debate.

“If this democracy is going to work, if our economy is going to work for everyone, then everyone has to be included,” he told CNN, giving himself credit for his efforts to be inclusive.