WASHINGTON - First lady Michelle Obama came face-to-face with the sometimes uncomfortable repercussions of her husband's immigration-enforcement policies Wednesday when a second-grader voiced her worries that her mother might be deported.
It happened as Mrs. Obama toured a Washington, D.C.-area elementary school with Margarita Zavala, the first lady of Mexico, two hours before President Obama renewed his call for comprehensive immigration reform. At one point, Mrs. Obama took questions from a dozen second-grade students, who sat in a small circle on the gymnasium floor.
"My mom said Barack Obama is going to take away everybody that doesn't have papers," one young girl told the first lady.
"Yeah, well, that's something that we have to work on, right?" Mrs. Obama replied. "To make sure that people can be here with the right kind of papers, right? That's exactly right."
The girl countered, "But my mom doesn't have any."
"Well we have to work on that, we have to fix that and everybody's got to work together in Congress to make sure that happens. That's right," Mrs. Obama said before moving on to the next question.
First lady encounters 2nd-grader with worries mom may be deported
It happened as Mrs. Obama toured a Washington, D.C.-area elementary school with Margarita Zavala, the first lady of Mexico, two hours before President Obama renewed his call for comprehensive immigration reform. At one point, Mrs. Obama took questions from a dozen second-grade students, who sat in a small circle on the gymnasium floor.
"My mom said Barack Obama is going to take away everybody that doesn't have papers," one young girl told the first lady.
"Yeah, well, that's something that we have to work on, right?" Mrs. Obama replied. "To make sure that people can be here with the right kind of papers, right? That's exactly right."
The girl countered, "But my mom doesn't have any."
"Well we have to work on that, we have to fix that and everybody's got to work together in Congress to make sure that happens. That's right," Mrs. Obama said before moving on to the next question.
First lady encounters 2nd-grader with worries mom may be deported