Protesters posing as guests interrupted the top U.S. border official’s interview at a Washington think tank Friday morning, loudly scolding the Trump administration official over President Trump’s zero-tolerance policy.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan was speaking with the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Immigration and Cross-Border Policy Director Theresa Cardinal Brown when a man in the second row stood up and began screaming at McAleenan.
“Shame on you! How do you sleep at night? You’re a child abuser! You’re orphaning children! You’re kidnapping children! How do you sleep at night? How do you sleep at night? Shame on you!” he said before being escorted out after 15 seconds of yelling less than 10 feet from the stage.
The interview continued, but minutes later a second protester standing in the back of the small room jumped into the conversation and condemned McAleenan for how migrant families who illegally entered the country were separated as a result of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ May mandate for border agents to refer all illegal entrants for prosecution.
At @BPC_Bipartisan, one man stands up and starts screaming “shame on you” over family separations at @CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan #immigration pic.twitter.com/2hRBfm4HrI
— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) July 27, 2018
The second man was removed and the conversation again resumed only to be hijacked by a third man.
I didn’t get video of the second guy but a third person interrupted @cbp Commissioner McAleenan and began yelling “give me your tired, your weary” and was escorted out of the event #bpclive pic.twitter.com/5WYB20NcVd
— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) July 27, 2018
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses,” he said, quoting the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. “It is a promise to the world, a bipartisan promise to the world, detaining children and detaining parents is not bipartisan.”
“Please let us finish our conversation,” Brown repeatedly asked.
A CBP spokesperson said McAleenan has a security detail that travels with him for his protection. Several security officers were visible by the stage at the Friday event.
Trump ended the zero-tolerance policy June 20 following a national outcry. McAleenan ordered CBP personnel to suspend the practice of referring all illegal entrant adults, which had included those with children, for prosecution.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the administration seeking to reunite the more than 2,500 children who were separated from their parents. Health and Human Services, as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has reunited approximately 1,500 children and parents as the result of a U.S. District Court order, and has said the remaining numbers were not eligible for reunification.
