Julian Castro Twitter Challenges Texas Republican Lt Gov Candidate to Immigration Debate

This came in from local San Antonio news. Looks like San Antonio mayor Julian Castro is tweeting the walk after the following Twitter exchange between him and Dan Patrick, Republican candidate for Lt. Governor, happened this week:

Congratulations .@danpatrick You are the most anti-immigrant Republican running for statewide office. You are the Pete Wilson of Texas.

— Mayor Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) January 22, 2014

.@juliancastro talk is cheap mayor, if you want to debate this in San Antonio, tell me when and I’ll be there.

— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) January 23, 2014

Let’s do that, @DanPatrick . How about it, @evansmith ?

— Mayor Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) January 24, 2014

Get the popcorn. It’s on.

And it looks like people are interested:

*DING DING* @JulianCastro: Let’s do that, @DanPatrick . How about it, @evansmith ? #txlege

— Tyler Norris (@TXTylerNorris) January 24, 2014

Love this and can’t wait. Go Mayor Castro RT @JulianCastro: Let’s do that, @DanPatrick . How about it, @evansmith ?

— Kevin Roden (@KevinRoden) January 24, 2014

By the way, looks like it just got real, because the ignorants are out:

@JulianCastro @DanPatrick @evansmith let’s go.. I’ll moderate it.. but, Mr. Mayor be sure you add the word “illegal”

— Joe Pags Pagliarulo (@JoeTalkShow) January 24, 2014

Just so you know, here is what Patrick has said about immigration recently. He compared those “illegals” to hardened criminals:

[Patrick] pounded the need for border security by citing “hardened criminals we arrested from 2008 to 2012 – not illegals who were here for a job, who got four speeding tickets, but hardened criminals – 141,000 we put in our jails just in four years in Texas.”

“They threaten your family. They threaten your life. They threaten your business. They threaten our state,” he said, adding that they were charged with 447,000 crimes including 2,000 murders and 5,000 rapes.

Violent crime is scary and if you’re a law-abiding person, you’re probably against it, no matter your stand on immigration.

But Patrick’s stark language could seem a counterpoint to concerns that Republicans’ future depends on the party attracting more support from the growing Hispanic population.

Patrick, of Houston, didn’t back away when I talked to him about it later.

“I’m trying to sound the alarm that this is about crime,” he said. “When I talk to Hispanic groups about this, they don’t object to this message. Most of that crime, one might argue, is in their neighborhoods. That’s where these people are setting up shop.”