We recently discussed the completely radical immigration and border control proposals of Julian Castro. As I mentioned in that piece, the rest of the 2020 field of candidates should probably be criticizing Castro, and they likely would be if he was any threat to anyone’s electoral chances but his own. Well, we can scratch that theory for the moment. Bernie Sanders has ridden to the rescue and decided to adopt at least one of Castro’s policies for his own platform.

This had to do with the deportation of illegal immigrants caught inside the borders of the United States. You might guess that Bernie is looking for less people “living in cages” or perhaps better legal representation. But you’d be wrong. Now Bernie wants to end all deportations. Period. Full stop. (Daily Caller)

While speaking before a left-wing Latino audience, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders pledged to end immigration raids and impose a “moratorium” on all deportations.

“We are going to end the ICE raids that are terrorizing communities all across this country,” Sanders said Saturday in Las Vegas, according to footage flagged by the Republican National Committee. “We are going to impose a moratorium on deportations. And we are going to, as I mentioned — and there are some things that a president can do with executive orders and some things you can’t.”

You’re to be forgiven if you think this is too crazy of an idea, even for Sanders, and are demanding some proof. Well, let’s go to the video.

At first glance, this looks like a desperation move by Sanders. He’s been essentially running the same playbook this year that he used when he came close to beating Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary. But back then he was really the only viable, hard-left option on the table for voters. Now the field is littered with socialists proposing even crazier plans than his. Sanders sees his position as the only alternative to Biden slipping away to Elizabeth Warren and he needs to get his mojo back. I’m guessing that’s where this scheme came from.

If we stop and think about it, however, this “policy” is somewhat in line with most of the rest of Bernie’s grandiose plans. For example, when it comes to Medicare for All, Bernie tosses out the grenade and offer no sane explanation as to how he would pay for it all. Now, on the immigration control front, he declares that we’ll simply stop deporting people. But he offers not the slightest clue as to what we’ll do with all of them.

We already have a massive backlog in our immigration courts. The holding facilities for illegal aliens are mostly full to the brim, a fact that Sanders has fundraised off of and complained about loudly. So what does Sanders propose that we do with them all? He won’t come out and say the words, but there’s only one other option. Release them all. This would effectively work out to be the same as Castro’s proposal to decriminalize illegal border crossings and let people simply come and go as they please.

There’s another popular phrase to describe plans such as this. Open borders. That’s where Sanders has landed on immigration. He’s literally proposing an open borders policy. So please do us all a favor and stop claiming that “none of the Democrats support open borders.” One of your top tier candidates is doing just that.