When White House reporter Olivia Nuzzi played the gut-wrenching audio of crying migrant kids separated from their parents at the border for Kirstjen Nielsen at Monday’s press briefing, it wasn’t clear that the Homeland Security chief could hear their wails. But on Friday, a group of protestors made sure Nielsen, the public face of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, heard it loud and clear.
According to the Huffington Post, a group of activists from the progressive organization CREDO showed up at Nielsen’s townhouse in Alexandria, Virginia, early Friday morning to blare the now-infamous recording, originally obtained by ProPublica, and launched into chants like “no justice, no sleep” and “free the kids” while Nielsen was inside.
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At about 8:30 AM, Nielsen left the house and headed for her car, where a group of protesters were waiting for her, chanting “shame!” at the DHS Secretary until she drove away.
“History will remember you!” one screamed at her. “History will judge you! You belong in the Hague!”
It’s the second time this week Nielsen was publicly accosted by protestors, first by the DC’s Democratic Socialists of America on Tuesday while she ate at, of all places, a Mexican restaurant. The day before, the DHS chief defended the administration’s new immigration policy at the White House, saying separating families was Congress’s fault, and that the children held in prison-like detention centers were “being well taken care of” because they have TV. She also said media captured at the centers, like photos of kids being kept in cages that US Border Patrol released, “reflect the focus of those who post such pictures and narratives.”
It’s not clear if that sentiment has changed after hearing kids as young as four scream out for their “mami” and “papá” at the country’s detention centers, unsure of when they’ll be reunited thanks to her administration’s new policy.
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