SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 3 (Our California Times) — California governor candidates Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton clashed over immigration as the campaign moved toward mail voting and the Nov. 3 general election.
The candidates met on CNN for the contest’s sole televised debate, the Associated Press reported. The Los Angeles Times reported that the hourlong debate took place Wednesday, Oct. 1, on a soundstage in Burbank.
What is the election timetable?
California voters are choosing a successor to outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom. County election officials were preparing to mail ballots to the state’s 23.2 million registered voters, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Associated Press reported that ballots were expected to begin arriving in homes in the days after the debate and identified Nov. 3 as the general election date.
A September poll by the University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Governmental Studies put Becerra ahead, according to an Associated Press debate preview. That survey was a snapshot of voter preferences, not an election result.
What did the candidates say about immigration?
Becerra challenged Hilton over whom he would welcome into the country, making the dispute personal.
“You seem to welcome immigrants who look like you, but deport immigrants who look like me,” Becerra said.
Hilton called that accusation “disgraceful” and said he wanted “to lower the temperature on this whole question.”
The exchange concerned both the candidates’ approach to immigration and their treatment of immigrant communities. It did not set out a shared policy: each candidate challenged the other’s position.
Why did migrant children enter the debate?
Hilton accused Becerra of dismantling the vetting of sponsors for unaccompanied immigrant children. Sponsor vetting involves checking the people who would take responsibility for children who arrive without a parent or guardian.
Becerra disputed Hilton’s account of the migrant crisis. The accusation and denial were competing claims made during the debate, rather than an established finding about how the children’s cases were handled.
What else did they discuss?
Homelessness was another point of conflict. Becerra promised action on encampments, saying, “We will make sure the encampments are cleared.”
Hilton described the state’s homelessness problem in sharply critical terms: “This absolute scandal shames our state.”
