Amid the national outrage caused by the immigration policies of the Donald Trump administration that separate children from their families and place them in detention centers, a group of protesters chased Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen out of a Mexican restaurant in Washington D.C. Tuesday night while shouting “shame!” at her.
RELATED:
The protesters, identified as members of the Metro D.C. Democratic Socialists of America, arrived at DXDC Cocina Mexicana, close to the White House, at 8 p.m. to interrupt Nielsen, who is considered the face of the "zero tolerance policy."
“In a Mexican restaurant of all places,” shouted a protester.
“How does it make you feel?” yelled another one while playing the audio of children crying at a detention center in Texas.
“How can you enjoy a Mexican dinner while you're deporting, jailing, tens of thousands of people that arrived into the United States looking for asylum?”
Activists chant slogans as they interrupt U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's (top R) dinner at a restaurant in Washington, D.C., U.S. June 19, 2018. Photo | Social media via Reuters
Nielsen couldn't stand it and decided to leave the restaurant in an SUV.
But Tyler Q. Houlton, a spokesman for the Homeland Security office, downplayed the event and said the secretary met “with a small group of protesters” and forgot to mention Nielsen was basically kicked out the restaurant amid shouting.
LIAR. Apparently you didn't realize there was video of a restaurant full of people screaming, "Shame Shame Shame!!" at @SecNielsen for her lies about and enforcement of Trump's barbaric policy of kidnapping & torturing migrant children and babies.#Maddowpic.twitter.com/dOJuR6Nkdy
— Polly Sigh (@dcpoll) 20 de junio de 2018
A day before the incident Nielsen gave a press conference regarding the current situation of immigration policies and border security. Trump praised her in a tweet and blamed the recent humanitarian crisis and separation of children from their families on previous administrations' “obsolete & nasty laws.”
After the press conference, Nielsen tweeted her office won't apologize for enforcing the laws passed by the U.S. Congress. “We are a nation of laws. We are asking Congress to change the laws,” she wrote.
Even though the POTUS blames previous laws for the humanitarian crisis and separation of families, remarks from his officials say something else.
Stephen Miller, Trump's senior advisor, recognized that the current policies aim to discourage migration, while Attorney General Jeff Sessions confirmed precisely that it was, in fact, the final objective.