Search interest for Julián Castro, the Obama-era Housing and Urban Development secretary and former San Antonio mayor, has seen a significant spike on Google since the start of the first Democratic presidential debate on Wednesday night.
Citing data from Google Trends, NBC News reports that search interest for the 2020 White House hopeful saw a surge of more than 2,400 percent on Google after he made a number of fiery comments on immigration during the debate.
{mosads}One sharp remark from Castro came when he was pressed during the debate about a recent photo that showed the bodies of the two migrants — Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month old daughter, Valeria — lying face down in the Rio Grande.
“Watching that image of Óscar and his daughter, Valeria, is heartbreaking,” Castro said before adding to a wave of applause, “It should also piss us all off.”
“If I were president today, I would sign an executive order that would get rid of Trump’s zero tolerance policy, the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy and the metering policy. This metering policy is basically what prompted Óscar and Valeria to make that risky swim across the river,” he added.
“They have been playing games with people who are coming and trying to seek asylum at our ports of entry,” he continued. “Óscar and Valeria went to a port of entry, and they were denied the ability to make an asylum claim, so they got frustrated and they tried to cross the river and they died because of that.”
Castro is also trending on Twitter, along with several of the other high-profile Democrats from Wednesday night’s debate, including New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke.