'If kids don't eat in peace, you don't eat in peace!'
Kirstjen Nielsen, head of the Department of Homeland Security, got chased out of a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night by protesters expressing their anger over the Trump administration's cruel assault on immigrant families.
In video footage posted to Facebook and Twitter by the D.C. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, activists can be seen approaching Nielsen in the restaurant, where they began booing and yelling at her.
"We’re in downtown DC disrupting DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s dinner at MXDC," the group wrote on its Facebook page. "The irony isn’t lost on us that this is a Mexican restaurant."
Inside the restaurant, activists yelled "shame, shame shame!" at Nielsen, calling on her to "end family separation" and "abolish ICE."
"If kids don't eat in peace, you don't eat in peace!" the activists chanted.
Part one of a video of @mdc_dsa @DC_IWW and others shouting DHS Secretary Nielsen out of a restaurant. She doesn’t need to be kidnapping #immigrantchildren to deserve this treatment. Don’t give the regime a moment of rest. #KeepFamilesTogether pic.twitter.com/B3RfraOk1E
— Smash Racism DC (@SmashRacismDC) June 20, 2018
"We will not stand by and let Secretary Nielsen dine in peace, while she is directing her employees to tear little girls away from their mothers and crying boys away from their fathers at our border," Margaret McLaughlin, a member of the Metro D.C. Democratic Socialists of America Steering Committee, said in a statement posted to the group's Facebook page.
"While Secretary Nielsen’s dinner may have been ruined, it is nothing compared to the horrors she has inflicted on innocent families."
In another video clip uploaded to Twitter by journalist Osita Nwanevu, Nielsen can be seen leaving the restaurant after being driven out by the protesters.
DHS Secretary Nielsen just got driven out of a Mexican restaurant here on 14th Street by activists. DSA, I believe. pic.twitter.com/lTKutryXBO
— Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) June 20, 2018
Apparently unaware that the footage had been posted online, DHS spokesperson Tyler Houton posted a tweet later in the evening saying, "While having a work dinner tonight, the Secretary and her staff heard from a small group of protestors who share her concern with our current immigration laws that have created a crisis on our southern border."
The incident comes amid growing public outcry over the Trump administration's cruel decision to separate immigrant children from their parents at the southern border.
Nielsen became the public face of the crisis on Monday, when the White House sent her out to answer questions from the press.
In a span of just 24 hours, she managed to both deny the existence of the Trump administration's family separation policy, and also to defend it in the face of criticism.
Nielsen's repeated lies about the crisis have prompted lawmakers to call on her to resign from her position as the head of DHS.
Meanwhile, Trump took to Twitter Tuesday night to defend Nielsen, commending her for doing a "fabulous job yesterday at the press conference."
Nielsen may have a safe space in the current White House — where lying to the American people is just part of the job — but as we saw Tuesday night, the American people aren't going to let her dine in comfort as thousands of children suffer on her watch.
