Kirstjen Nielsen was taunted by demonstrators who shouted ‘If kids don’t eat in peace, you don’t eat in peace’ and 'Kirstjen Nielsen, you’re a villain!'
Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, was harangued by protesters as she ate at a Mexican restaurant amid a monumental global and domestic backlash over the US policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the southern border.
A video posted by the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America depicted activists and protesters yelling at Nielsen while she attempted to ignore the growing chorus of chants.
‘How can you enjoy a Mexican dinner as you’re deporting and imprisoning tens of thousands of people that come here seeking asylum in the United States?’ one person shouted, before calling for an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).
‘We call on you to end family separation and abolish Ice,’ a protester said, as others shouted, ‘Shame!’, and ‘If kids don’t eat in peace, you don’t eat in peace’, and ‘Kirstjen Nielsen, you’re a villain!’
‘In a Mexican restaurant, of all places!’ someone else yelled in the clip, which was recorded at MXDC on Facebook Live, a restaurant near the White House in Washington DC. ‘The fucking gall!’
Nielsen did not look away from her table and stared blankly down at her food. The protesters also played the viral audio of Central American children crying after being separated from their parents at the border.
‘How does that make you feel?’ someone asked her. ’Do you hear the babies crying?’ Nielsen eventually exited the eatery and was driven away, a video shows.
Anger has been boiling over in America, aimed at the Trump administration, and at Nielsen in particular. She defended the inhumane policy in a speech on Monday, saying: ‘We will not apologize for the job we do, or for the job law enforcement does, for doing the job that the American people expect us to do.’
At a press briefing, she also claimed that she had not heard the audio of the children calling ‘Mami!’ and ‘Papá’.
In the last six weeks, more than 2,000 children were separated under the new ‘zero tolerance’ policy, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).