Protesters chanting “shame, shame” surrounded Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen as she dined at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, DC, to call out the Trump administration’s policy of separating families at the southern border.
Protesters confront DHS Secretary Nielsen with cries of “shame” at Mexican restaurant
They were calling out the Trump administration’s practice of separating families at the border.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Jen Kirby is a senior foreign and national security reporter at Vox, where she covers global instability.
The protesters, members of Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, confronted Nielsen with cries such as “end family separation” and “kids don’t eat in peace, you don’t eat in peace.”
A clip of the protest at MXDC Cocina Mexicana in Washington, DC, is below:
The video is dark, but it’s possible to see Nielsen at a table as the protesters chant and give short speeches around her. The Democratic Socialists group indicated they intended to disrupt her dinner.
“Secretary Nielsen and everyone else who has carried out these brutal and cold-blooded orders to rip apart families should never be allowed to eat and drink in public again,” Margaret McLaughlin, a member of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America Steering Committee, said in a statement. “These barbarous acts must end and those at the helm must be held accountable. While Secretary Nielsen’s dinner may have been ruined, it is nothing compared to the horrors she has inflicted on innocent families.”
According to the group, police were later called to the restaurant, but none of the protesters were arrested.
Nielsen has become the face of the Trump administration’s practice of separating families to prosecute all adults who enter the US illegally. She defended the practice during a heated press briefing on Monday, falsely blaming Congress for the crisis. A growing number of Democrats, including several senators, are now calling for her resignation.
A Twitter user posted a video that reportedly showed Nielsen leaving the restaurant:
Department of Homeland Security press secretary Tyler Q. Houlton offered a different spin on the encounter, saying in a statement posted on Twitter that “while having a work dinner, the Secretary and her staff heard from a small group of protesters who share her concern with our current immigration laws that have created a crisis on our southern border.”
The statement added that Nielsen “encourages all — including this group” to reach out to members of Congress to “close immigration loopholes that made our system a mess.”
The protesters blasted Nielsen for the Trump administration’s policy of separating children and families at the border. At one point, one of the protesters played the audio of a sobbing child who had been torn from her parents as Nielsen dined. “How does that make you feel?” someone shouted.
The protesters also chanted “no borders, no walls, sanctuary for all” and “abolish ICE,” which has become a progressive rallying cry against what some of the left see as the federal government’s draconian immigration enforcement and deportations — which exist with or without Trump.
Most national Democratic politicians don’t or haven’t come out in support of such radical steps, though, as Vox’s Dara Lind has written, it could very well become a question that Democrats looking to 2020 have to answer to satisfy the base.
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