Trump's homeland security chief Kirstjen Nielsen confronted by protesters while eating out 'in Mexican restaurant, of all places'

'If kids don’t eat in peace, you don’t eat in peace,' shouts demonstrator

Ms Nielsen eventually left the restaurant while accompanied by an entourage (Osita Nwanevu / Twitter)

Protesters heckled Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary while she was eating at a Mexican restaurant as the outcry over a controversial policy of separating families at the Mexican border mounts.

Kirstjen Nielsen was taunted by a group of demonstrators who chanted “shame!” and noted the irony of her dining at a Mexican restaurant in Washington DC on Tuesday night.

Ms Nielsen, who is responsible for implementing Mr Trump’s efforts to axe immigration, could be seen ignoring the protesters and did not appear to respond to them at all during an almost 11-minute clip.

“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 in the video which was posted by the group Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America.

“If kids don’t eat in peace, you don’t eat in peace,” the demonstrators shouted.

“We call on you to end family separation and abolish ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement),” another protester said.

The demonstrators played an audio clip of Central American children crying after they were separated from their parents at the border.

“How does that make you feel? Do you hear the babies crying?” a demonstrator asked.

Ms Nielsen eventually left the restaurant while accompanied by an entourage.

Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, which claimed responsibility for the protest, released a statement from a member of its steering committee Margaret McLaughlin.

“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,” she said.

"Secretary Nielsen and everyone else who has carried out these brutal and cold-blooded orders to rip apart families should never be allowed to eat and drink in public again.

"These barbarous acts must end and those at the helm must be held accountable. While Secretary Nielsen’s dinner may have been ruined, it is nothing compared to the horrors she has inflicted on innocent families."

Ms Nielsen sought to defend the administration’s policy in a speech on Monday – remaining unremorseful about the actions of the administration.

“We will not apologise for the job we do, or for the job law enforcement does, for doing the job that the American people expect us to do,” she said.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, between 5 May and 9 June of this year more than 2,000 children were separated under the new “zero tolerance” policy.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the “zero tolerance” policy which refers all cases of illegal entry for criminal prosecution. Since May, the Trump administration has charged every adult caught crossing the border illegally entering the US at the Mexican border with federal crimes, instead of referring those with children mainly to immigration courts in the way that former administrations did.

On Sunday, Democratic legislators joined hundreds of protesters in New Jersey and Texas to demonstrate outside immigration detention facilities for young people.

Ms Nielsen retweeted a message from the US president on Tuesday night, saying she had done a “fabulous job” at a news conference on Monday. She also tweeted she would “work tirelessly until our broken immigration system is fixed, our borders are secure and families can stay together.”