Scott Walker traveled to his old hometown of Plainfield, Iowa today where he was confronted by Jose Flores, an illegal immigrant and board vice president of the immigration rights group Voces de la Frontera, on why he opposes President Obama’s immigration policies:
Wonderful. Illegal immigrant groups are now using children as props in manufactured meetings with GOP presidential candidates.
More on the encounter from the Wisconsin State Journal:
But he also has been a polarizing figure in Wisconsin, winning a series of conservative victories while galvanizing the opposition of unions, Democrats and groups like Voces de la Frontera, the immigrant rights group that organized the confrontation between Walker and 13-year-old Leslie Flores on Sunday.
Walker initially ducked away from the crowd when it became apparent Flores wasn’t a typical well-wisher. Then after taking a half-hour tour of the farm owned by Merlin and Janice Dietz, who used to babysit Walker as a child, he returned to speak with the girl, her father and younger brother.
Leslie Flores, a natural born American citizen whose Mexican-born parents are living in the country illegally, and her father, Jose Flores, Voces board vice president, asked Walker to remove Wisconsin from a lawsuit brought by 25 states challenging Obama’s order. Earlier this year, a federal judge agreed to block the order while it is being litigated.
“The president made this issue,” Walker said to Flores’ father, Jose Flores, a painter from Waukesha. “I sympathize with her, but I want to make sure that going forward we follow the law in a way that’s responsible.”
Leslie Flores was in tears after the encounter. “He said he’s supporting us, but he’s not reversing the lawsuit,” she said.
But the exchange was not as confrontational as this write-up suggests, with The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol calling Governor Walker “impressive”:
Video of the exchange shows just what Kristol is getting at as Walker is measured and on point throughout the entire back and forth:
Calmest confrontation we’ve ever seen, especially when you consider it’s with a professional protester.
Update. More on the confrontation here:
Editor’s note: The source of a link above has been corrected (the original source was listed as the Wall Street Journal, which was incorrect). Also, this post has been updated with additional tweets.
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