President Barack Obama appeared displeased that Washington Post reporter David Nakamura shouted out a question about immigration data after Obama and the Prime Minister of Italy finished a press conference in the Rose Garden.
According to statistics from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported by Nakamura, 137,366 unaccompanied minors and families with children were apprehended by Border Patrol agents on the Southern border in fiscal 2016, an increase of several hundred from 2014.
But Obama disagreed:
No, actually, David, they spiked heavily in 2014, went down significantly in 2015, have gone back up this year, in part because there’s still desperation in Central America, but are still not at the levels they were in 2014.
Obama chided Nakamura for slipping in a question at the end of the press conference, breaking the usual protocol for visiting heads of state.
“I appreciate you shouting out a question, since I’m sure there are a lot of other colleagues of yours who would want to do the same,” he said with a tone of disapproval.
After the exchange, Nakamura tweeted out his story calling it “under-reported.”
I think this is an under-reported story: Flow of Central Americans to U.S. surging, expected to exceed 2014 numbers https://t.co/lVvUVZndEF
— David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) October 18, 2016
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