Veteran gets presidential response to question at immigration town hall

World Today

U.S. President Barack Obama traveled to the state of Florida to defend his immigration policy. The president attempted to reassure the millions of undocumented people in the country that his latest executive action on immigration will survive legal challenges. During a town hall meeting at Florida International University, a young veteran confronted the president.

CCTV America’s Nitza Soledad Perez reported this story from Miami.

“I went to war, survived the war, only to come back to fight another war: trying to keep my mom in the United States,” U.S. veteran Eric Narvaez said.

Narvaez, a U.S.-born veteran, was shot and wounded during his first tour to Afghanistan. When he came back, his mother was gone.

“She was deported, and [then] she came back. She pretty much marched with a bunch of mothers. She was even arrested and put in jail for a long time, for months,” Narvaez said. “We got a judge that actually let her out, but it is still not a hundred percent. We are fighting in court right now.”

The threat of deportation continues to loom over his mother, Esther Narvaez, an undocumented immigrant.

“Yes, I am in fear, because they will separate me from my children all over again,” she said. “I don’t want to suffer that pain again. We were separated for eight years. No more.”

Eric Narvaez came to Obama’s town hall meeting looking for a solution. The president’s latest executive actions on immigration would have shielded Eric’s mother and millions more from deportation.

“I’m confident that your mother qualifies under the executive action program that I’ve put forward,” the president said to him.

“Right now, the judge has blocked us initiating the program where she can come and sign up and get registered. But in the meantime, part of the message that I’m sending is, if you qualified for the executive action that I put forward, then we’re still going to make sure that your mom is not prioritized in terms of enforcement. And she should feel confident about that. So I just want to assure her, short term.”

Obama has promised to veto any bill that would come to his desk, blocking his most recent immigration policies. Meanwhile, he will keep fighting, even if that means taking it to the nation’s highest court.

Eric Narvaez said he will do the same for his mother.

“I promised her, she is going to stay here. We are going to continue to fight that fight,” he said. “If I survived war, I am going to survive this battle right here.”