CNN host Brianna Keilar battled Oklahoma State School Superintendent Ryan Walters over his openness to potential ICE raids on schools.
During a segment on Tuesday’s “CNN News Central,” Keilar played a clip of Walters saying on a local outlet that he would not rule out raids on schools if the Trump administration deemed it necessary.
“If that’s what President Trump sees fit as there’s an illegal immigrant population there that needs to have enforcement to remove them from the schools, absolutely,” Walters said in the interview. “We will work with him to make sure that he‘s able to carry that out.”
“Do you think that would be traumatic for students in schools? And I’m talking about all students,” Keilar asked him, in response to the clip.
“My big concern is what illegal immigration has done to our education system,” Walters began. “It has caused mass chaos. We aren‘t able to get the resources—”
“Can you just answer my question please, superintendent?” Keilar interjected.
She followed up, speaking slowly, “Do you think it would be traumatic for students to witness a raid in their school and students forcibly removed from their school? Do you think that would be traumatic?”
Walters answered, “I think what would be traumatic is if you didn‘t give President Trump the information necessary to keep families together. So what you would prefer is to just deport the parents and have the kids have no idea what happened to their parents? What we‘re—”
“That’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking you….That’s not at all what I’m asking, superintendent,” Keilar interrupted again.
Keilar repeated her question to which Walters reiterated his support for any decision Trump made on immigration policy. When she interrupted him again, Walters attacked the question.
“You are asking me a question, a hypothetical, when we’re dealing—” Walters said.
“It’s not hypothetical. You made it clear it’s not hypothetical. You said it’s not hypothetical, sir,” Keilar said.
“I told you about a terrorist in our school last year, and your defense would say you wouldn‘t remove him because he’s a terrorist in a school,” Walters said. “Of course, we’re going to take it on a case by case basis. We’re going to work with the Trump administration. We have fentanyl deaths over 600 times up in our state. Of course, we’re going to deal with that.”
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An Afghan national was arrested in October in Oklahoma for plotting to commit a terrorist attack on Election Day with an underage co-conspirator.
Keilar closed the segment by asking Walters if he would only remove students who are suspected terrorists.
“I’m saying that we’re going to work with the Trump administration to enforce their anti-illegal immigration policy,” Walters said. “That includes giving them information about students in our schools, families enrolled in our schools so they can make the decisions on how to deport families together and how to identify criminals in our school system.”
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The Oklahoma Board of Education voted unanimously on Tuesday in favor of a proposal to require parents to report on their child’s citizenship or immigration status. However, the proposal would need to be approved by the state legislature and governor before it can take effect.
