Homeland Security Chief Heckled in Mexican Restaurant

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, one of the main defenders of the administration's harsh border policies, decided to dine at a Mexican restaurant Tuesday night. It did not go well. Protesters entered the MXDC restaurant in Washington and confronted Nielsen and her dinner companion about the family separation policy, the New York Daily News reports. "How can you enjoy a Mexican dinner as you're deporting, imprisoning ... thousands of people who come here seeking asylum?" one demonstrator asked. Video of the encounter shows Nielsen looking at her cutlery and not engaging with the protesters, who were kept at a distance by Secret Service agents.

Protesters shouted "Shame" and "If kids don't eat in peace, you don't eat in peace." They also played audio of distressed children calling for their parents in a border detention center. Witness Erica Olmstead tells the Daily News that some restaurant patrons joined in the clapping and chanting, while others seemed "ambivalent." After about 10 minutes, Nielsen left the restaurant and entered a vehicle, the Guardian reports. Trump praised Nielsen in a tweet Tuesday, saying she had done a great job at a Monday press conference "explaining security at the border and for our country, while at the same time recommending changes to obsolete & nasty laws, which force family separation." (More Kirstjen Nielsen stories.)