Julián Castro punches Biden on family separations at Dem debate: 'We need to have some guts on this issue'

Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro accused former Vice President Joe Biden of not having enough "guts" to pursue a path to ending migrant family separations.

At Wednesday night's Democratic presidential debate on CNN, Biden was asked if he would resume the immigration policies that were in place under President Barack Obama, who deported 800,000 people.

"Absolutely not," Biden insisted before he was interrupted by protests from the crowd.

"We’re in a circumstance where if you say you can just cross the border," Biden continued, "what do you say to all of those people around the world who want the same thing to come to the United States and make the case, that they have to wait in line. The fact of the matter is, you should be able to -- if you cross the border illegally, you should be able to be sent back."

"It looks like one of us has learned from the lessons of the past and one of us hasn’t," Castro replied. "My immigration plan would fix the broken legal immigration system because we do have a problem with that."

"Secondly, the only way that we’re going to guarantee that these kinds of family separations don’t happen in the future is that we need to repeal this law," he added. "We need to have some guts on this issue."

Biden was given time to respond.

"I have guts enough to say his plan doesn’t make sense," the former vice president shot back. "The fact of the matter is, when people cross the border illegally, it is illegal to do it unless they’re seeking asylum. People should have to get in line. That’s the problem."

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