Oklahoma State School Superintendent Ryan Walters pushed back after a clash on CNN over his openness to allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers into schools – with Walters doubling down and rejecting “sanctuary schools.”
Walters had told local media that he would not rule out allowing federal agents into schools to remove illegal immigrants, amid an ongoing deportation operation since President Donald Trump took office.
The Trump administration has lifted a Biden-era “sensitive places” mandate, which prevented agents from entering schools amid concerns that illegal immigrants could use such places to hide from enforcement. It has sparked pushback from some local officials.
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Oklahoma State School Superintendent Ryan Walters, left, is pushing back against left-wing media outlets and Democrats after facing criticism for announcing his intention to cooperate with President Donald Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown. (AP/Getty)
However, Walters, in an interview with Fox News Digital, said that such moves could be necessary to avoid family separation.
“Are the Democrats and now the left-wing media the party of family separation? If you have adults that are going to be deported from this country, do you not want the Trump administration to know where their kids are, where they’re enrolled in school, so that if the family is to be deported, they’re actually deported together?” he asked.
It led to a furious back-and-forth with CNN host Brianna Keilar, who asked him if it would be traumatic for kids.
“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?”
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CNN host Brianna Keilar asked Ryan Walters to respond to his comments appearing to support ICE raids in schools. (CNN screenshot)
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.
Many members of the media have also taken issue with a recent rule change by the Oklahoma State Board of Education, titled “Enhancing Enrollment Transparency,” which requires each school district to report the number of students enrolled in schools who are unable to provide proof of citizenship or legal status. According to the rule, the new policy is designed to “provide greater transparency” and to “support the needs” of the schools and students.
“We’re saying we want to see your driver’s license, we want to see which country you came from, if you’ve come into the country illegally. I think that is a very commonsense requirement that we’re putting out there. We want to make sure that we’re asking for this information so that we can accurately use resources and personnel in the state to educate our children,” Walters explained. “I think that our taxpayers or our citizens understand that. And the left tries to gaslight the American people into acting like this is some kind of absurd ask.”
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ICE and DEA migrant raids New York City. (Drug Enforcement Administration New York)
Speaking to Fox Digital, Walters stood by his stance, noting Trump’s victory at the voting booth in November.
“We’re talking about families, we’re talking about adults, the adults are in the country illegally. And we’re trying to make sure the Trump administration has the information to move forward with the most aggressive deportation policy in our nation’s history that the American people clearly support,” he said.
“The president won an overwhelming victory with his election. He won every swing state. He won every county in Oklahoma. So you look at this and you say: ‘CNN, left wing media, Democrats, you don’t want to have the real conversation because it requires you to admit you created this problem.’ Now the adults are in charge trying to fix it by shutting down the border, deporting illegal immigrants,” he said.
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President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Walters also pointed to the impact of illegal immigration on schools in Oklahoma, including the necessary diversion of resources.
“While the left continues to go out and defend and champion the cause of illegal immigrant criminals, we’re looking at the American citizen, Oklahomans, and we’re sitting here saying, ‘listen, what about the kid that’s over a year behind in reading who we’ve now put in a tutoring program? They’re getting caught back up, now all of a sudden, all the tutors have to be diverted because of illegal immigrants that have flocked to their city and flocked to their hometown,’” he said.
“Outlets like CNN and other left-wing outlets refuse to talk about the compassion for the victims’ families who have been targeted by the crimes committed by illegal immigrants. They refuse to talk about compassion when it’s your students of American citizens that have fallen behind in school, are working to get caught back up and yet, all of their resources are being moved at the last minute. They refuse to talk about compassion when you see the deaths caused by fentanyl, that oftentimes what a student tries it for the first time and they drop dead,” he said. “Americans are tired of it.”
He also pointed to the flow of drugs and criminals into the U.S. via the porous southern border.
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Oklahoma State School Superintendent Ryan Walters. (Courtesy of Ryan Walters)
“And we know that over 99% of that fentanyl has come across the border. So the left, they can cry their crocodile tears. It’s complete phony outrage that they act like that,” he said. “They have compassion for illegal immigrants. They have no compassion for the American citizens, for the American people, for the American worker. And Americans are tired of it.”
Walters also said that other states should be following Oklahoma’s example and backing the deportation and border security effort by the Trump administration.
“This country is a law and order country. We cannot continue to allow criminal activity, we cannot continue to allow sanctuary schools,” he said. “Listen, you don’t get to…harbor any other criminals in a school system. We should not be allowing illegal immigrants to enroll in our schools, work in our schools, and not get that information for the president, for the entire country,” he said.
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“Americans want to see an America First policy. They’ve got that in President Trump,” he added. “They will see that here in Oklahoma with our schools. We will put our students first. We will put American citizens first. And we will continue to work with President Trump and his team as they are doing a tremendous job in not only getting our schools back on track but getting our country back on track by bringing law and order back.”
Fox News’ Lindsay Kornick and Emma Woodhead contributed to this report.
