Oklahoma superintendent who brawled with CNN over ICE entering schools doubles down: 'Deported together'

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.

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?"

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-"

"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."

Speaking to Fox Digital, Walters stood by his stance, noting Trump's victory at the voting booth in November.

"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.

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.

"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."

"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.