San Antonio Congressman Joaquin Castro said President Trump’s plan to pull away from the Iran nuclear deal will impact the price of oil and gas. Castro said he’s also concerned about Russian influence in Texas and a state-led immigration lawsuit.
Castro, a Democrat whose district includes Bexar County, said Trump’s plan to pull out of the nuclear deal will impact the price you pay at the pump. He says it will also affect U.S. relationships with its allies.
“Because France and other European allies have said they are going to stay in it. So it may put us in a very awkward and strange position of having to sanction European banks or other institutions that do business with Iran because they remain in the deal and now we’ve gotten out of it,” Castro said.
Castro said backing away from the Iranian deal could also mean Iran once again attempts to build a nuclear weapon.
Castro serves on both the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and his time on the second committee touches on another concern: Russian involvement in U.S. domestic policy and social media.
“We have to hold the people who are responsible accountable. The second thing is, working with our social media companies to root out any of these fake bots for example that amplify these messages on Twitter or people create fake Facebook accounts”, Castro said.
Castro said he's also concerned about Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s legal push to end the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program. He said that not even Sen. John Cornyn, Texas’ top ranking Republican in Washington, supports it.
“The fact is, in Texas, you have a wide majority of people who are supportive of the DACA kids, both Republicans and Democrats,” Castro said.
Castro also said that he supports the federal request filed by Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund to enter the lawsuit and intervene on the behalf of DACA recipients, which was filed with the federal court in Brownsville on Tuesday.
Ryan Poppe can be reached atrpoppe@tpr.org or on Twitter@RyanPoppe1
