Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao confronted the protesters, who stood outside her car playing audio of migrant children crying in a detention center on the U.S. border. | Alex Wong/Getty Images 'Leave my husband alone': Elaine Chao clashes with immigration protesters

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao clashed with immigration protesters and demanded they leave her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, alone, as seen in a video posted to Twitter on Tuesday.

Chao confronted the protesters, who stood outside her car playing audio of migrant children crying in a detention center on the U.S. border. She was leaving an event on the Georgetown University campus when several students approached her, according to the Twitter user who posted the video.


“Why are you separating families?” the protesters yelled. “How does he sleep at night?”

“You leave him alone,” Chao said, pointing her finger. “You leave my husband alone.”

The majority leader is among high-ranking Republicans who have come under fire over an immigration policy that resulted in the separation of migrant children from their parents who crossed the U.S. border illegally. President Donald Trump reversed his policy via an executive order last week, but officials said on Tuesday that more than 2,000 children remained in limbo, separated from their parents.

“We confronted @SenateMajLdr and @SecElaineChao with @ProPublica audio of children separated from their families at the border while leaving a @Georgetown event,” the tweet said. “We must #AbolishICE & #AbolishCBP! #FreedomforImmigrants.”

The video shows approximately five people surrounding Chao as she exits a building and heads into a car. Another person calls for protesters to stand back as Chao walks toward the vehicle. The video was taken Monday at around 8:30 p.m., according to the Twitter user who posted it. The user declined to give his last name.

Protesters played a secretly recorded audiotape published by ProPublica.

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The confrontation comes at a time when members of the Trump administration are calling for Democrats to show more civility and respect to government officials. The controversy has opened a debate about whether civility is a tool to protect the status quo and powerful officials.

The civility conversation picked up momentum when Trump dubbed Rep. Maxine Waters of California the “face of the Democrats” after she encouraged her supporters to protest his Cabinet members whenever they see them.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders grabbed headlines over the weekend when she was asked to leave a restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, because she works for Trump. And last week, protesters drove Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen out of a Mexican restaurant as furor over the separation of migrant families came to a boil.

A spokesperson for McConnell said on Tuesday that he did not have a statement on the protesters, and a representative for Chao did not immediately respond to a request for comment.