A video footage of United States Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao engaging in a confrontation with some protesters is making the rounds on social media.

Chao can be seen in the viral clip angrily facing a group questioning her and her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, over their stand on U.S. immigration policies.



The group had walked up to the couple playing the now infamous audio clip from ProPublica purportedly featuring crying children after they were separated from their parents at the border.

“We confronted @SenateMajLdr and @SecElaineChao with @ProPublica audio of children separated from their families at the border while leaving a @Georgetown event. We must #AbolishICE & #AbolishCBP! #FreedomforImmigrants” read the tweet which appears to have come from one of the protesters.

During the brief confrontation, one started repeating, “Why are you separating families?”

“Why don’t you leave my husband alone?” Chao repeatedly told the group before getting into her car.

“I’m not trying to disrespect you, but why is he separating families?” the protester said. “I’m not trying to disrespect you. He’s separating families.”

The video has since been viewed almost three million times on Twitter.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan to Chinese parents, Chao herself is an immigrant who came to the U.S. on a freight ship along with her mother and two younger sisters when she was eight years old in 1961.

In 2001, she became the first Asian American woman and the first Chinese American in U.S. history to be appointed to a President’s Cabinet as the Secretary of Labor under the administration of former President George W. Bush.