Confrontations between unauthorized immigrant protesters and presidential candidates are usually gold to the national Spanish-language networks. They typically serve to advance this media segment’s favored immigration narrative, as well as depict immigration dissidents as “anti-immigrant” or “insensitive.”
When these videos accomplish their objectives, they are blasted all over Univision, Telemundo, and MundoFox newscasts, as well as on ImpreMedia’s print and social media footprints. But what happens when the confrontation doesn’t go as intended?
These staged and carefully-planned confrontations typically target a politician (near-universally a Republican male), seemingly caught off-guard by young “Dreamers” who demand to know why X does not unequivocally support a pathway to citizenship. The politician will cycle through his first set of talking points, which will be met by an emotional response (some variant of “why do you want to deport my parents?”). At that point, one of two things usually happens:
A. The politician flees to “another meeting.”
B. A phalanx of staff surrounds the politician to shield them from the questioner.
Enter Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. At a recent campaign stop in Iowa, Walker was confronted as usual by a “Dreamer” family from Wisconsin, but he deviated from the template. Instead of trying to avoid them, Walker actually engaged them. He focused on the primacy of the rule of law in the United States, and then doubled down on it when it was met with an emotional response. Moreover, he did so calmly and without any bombast.
GOVERNOR WALKER: No man or woman is above the law in this country—that’s the beauty of America. No man or woman can do something on their own, whether the President or anybody else. They don’t get the right to make the law when there’s a process of going through Congress. The President had the opportunity to do it for the first two years when his party controlled everything. He did not do that. And so we need to go forward with a system that has the Congress as well as the President.
Faced with that, unsurprisingly, Spanish-language media gave the confrontation the blackout treatment. Walker’s straightforward defense of both the rule of law and legal immigration do nothing to advance the narratives these networks are consistently working to drive. Here’s hoping conservatives can absorb the lessons from this example going forward.
Below is the transcript of the referenced exchange between Gov. Walker and the unauthorized immigrant family that confronted him.
GOVERNOR WALKER: ...because the President of the United States, 22 times before last November, said he can’t do what he did. He ignored the law. That’s why the Courts—not me—the Courts said we were right. I don’t have the authority to do that. I have the authority to make the case. The President of the United States can’t make law without going through the Congress.
UNAUTHORIZED IMMIGRANT: Ok, but ah, when’s that going to happen? When are you guys going to fix the immigration system? So only in Wisconsin we are like 34,000 families, you know, to qualify for DAPA. So what’s going to happen? When are you guys going to take the time to fix the immigration reform? So, we’ve got to be deported?
GOVERNOR WALKER: No, I said that going forward, we’ve got to fix the system. It starts with securing the border. We’ve seen for security reasons far beyond immigration that that’s important. We’ve got to enforce the law, and then we go forward with a legal immigration system that puts a priority on families here in America, whether they’re born here or come here from somewhere else legally, that puts a priority on American working families and their wages. Again, I completely sympathize with it, but it’s one of those where again, the President said many, many times he couldn’t do exactly what he did No man or woman is above the law in this country—that’s the beauty of America. No man or woman can do something on their own, whether the President or anybody else. They don’t get the right to make the law when there’s a process of going through Congress. The President had the opportunity to do it for the first two years when his party controlled everything. He did not do that. And so we need to go forward with a system that has the Congress as well as the President.
UNAUTHORIZED IMMIGRANT: I know what you say, but you know, but back to my answer, you know, that’s not fair for us, you know. My son, his name is Luis Flores.
LUIS FLORES: Do you want me to like come home from school, and my Dad gets deported?
GOVERNOR WALKER: No, that’s not what I’m talking about. You mentioned Waukesha. I’ve got two nieces who go to school there as well. One who’s in, both who are in elementary school in Waukesha, and I appreciate kids like you and kids like them. So that’s not what my point is. My point is that in America nobody is above the law. No one person, the President can’t make the law just because he says it, particularly when he said he couldn’t. And so I hope one of the things that all of us, particularly kids learn in school, is that the process is the President and the Congress have to work together.
UNAUTHORIZED IMMIGRANT: Can you do the last thing for us, can you drop Wisconsin off the lawsuit?
UNAUTHORIZED IMMIGRANT’S DAUGHTER: Can you drop the lawsuit?
GOVERNOR WALKER: Well, again my point is the President of the United States can’t be above the law.
UNAUTHORIZED IMMIGRANT: You can’t do that?
GOVERNOR WALKER: But I agree with, I support the lawsuit, because I think the President can’t be above the law.
