Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley got a homeade Mexican feast on Thursday courtesy of a local Austin family.
The Ramirez family welcomed O'Malley into their East Austin home as part of a new campaign called 'DAPA Dinners.'
Most of the Ramirez family is undocumented.
They would have benefitted from President Obama's Deferred Action for Parents of Americans - or DAPA.
The youngest of the five children--the only one born in the US--.got emotional talking about the constant fear she lives in of her parents being deported.
"How would you feel if you came home one day and no one was there, an empty house?" said Abigail Ramirez.
Two of her sisters are currently students at UT and participate in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program - or DACA.
"So you aren't covered by DACA but your kids are, which is why we need to extend executive protections so that we don't break up families," said O'Malley.
O'Malley spoke out against the appelate court ruling this week that blocked DAPA and the expansion of DACA.
That was a victory for Texas and 25 other states that sued to block the president's executive immigration orders.
"I believe very, very firmly that our country is made better in every generation by the arrival of new American immigrants," O'Malley said.
After lunch, O'Malley spoke with reporters outside and criticized the rhetoric of candidates on both sides of the aisle.
"The sort of hateful, racist rhetoric that Donald Trump spews out to try to scapegoat others, I think is really bad for our country and all of us need to press back against it," he said. "It's this close to ethnic cleansing."
O'Malley also says his Democratic opponents haven't gone far enough to address the issue of immigration.
His immigration proposals include extending deferred action on deportation to the 'greatest possible' number of undocumented immigrants.
He also wants to bring down the cost of applying for executive protection.
O'Malley has consistently polled far behind his opponents Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.