A 13-year-old U.S. citizen of undocumented parents living in Wisconsin twice confronted Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, in Iowa on Sunday to ask why their state was part of a lawsuit challenging President Obama’s executive action on deportation relief for upwards of five million immigrants.
During the five-minute exchange obtained by Voces de la Frontera, Walker told 13-year-old Leslie Flores, “I completely sympathize with the situation you’re all in and others are in,” but said that he wouldn’t drop Wisconsin from the lawsuit because “the president of the United States can’t make law without going through the Congress.”
Turning to address Leslie’s family, Walker accused Obama of having the chance to fix immigration in his first two years in office, but failing to do so. Walker added that as president, he would make sure to secure the borders and put “in place a system that enforces the laws, and then, then the next president and Congress can deal with these issues going forward. But right now, I’m not blocking anything.”
Leslie was in Iowa with her seven-year-old brother Louis and her undocumented father Jose.
Before breaking out into tears, Louis asked Walker, “Do you want me to like come home and come from school and my dad get deported?” Walker sidestepped, stating that he had two nieces who go to school in Waukesha, but that his point was “in America nobody’s above the law.” Instead of addressing the topic of deportation, Walker stated that he hoped kids like Louis would learn in school that “the President and the Congress have to work together.”
When Jose jumped in later, asking if Wisconsin could be dropped from the lawsuit, Walker stated, “I agree with it, I support the lawsuit because the President can’t be above the law.”
Watch the extended confrontation here:
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Wisconsin Children Confront Scott Walker Over Whether He’ll Deport Their Undocumented Father