Wrapped in Mylar blankets, advocates protest DHS Sec. Nielsen for her role in family separation

Demonstrators walk out on DHS Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen's testimony during a Senate hearing

Wrapped in Mylar blankets representing “the conditions that kids in detention are subjected to under her watch,” parents and their children, along with faith leaders and other advocates, walked out on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen during her opening remarks at a Senate hearing Wednesday, demanding her resignation for her role in the Trump administration’s barbaric “zero tolerance” policy.

CLIP: Protesters at Senate hearing with @SecNielsen.

Watch hearing LIVE here: https://t.co/NeufmVyvUs pic.twitter.com/L6MY1GTHor

— CSPAN (@cspan) October 10, 2018

Nielsen’s testimony, during a "Threats to the Homeland" hearing, comes as the administration has a record number of migrant kids in custody, at nearly 13,000. Over 100 of these kids were stolen from their parents due to the “zero tolerance” policy and continue to remain separated in blatant violation of a federal judge’s order.

Her testimony also falls on the same day officials have opened public comments on a proposed rule that would punish immigrants if they legally accessed nutrition programs and other vital services for their U.S. citizen kids. This is just the latest battle in the administration’s disgusting war on kids, and for her role in it—which she repeatedly lied about—Nielsen must resign and be held accountable.

“We walked out of the hearing today as Sec. Nielsen spoke,” tweeted Kunoor Ojha of The National Domestic Workers Alliance, one of the advocates in the action this morning. “We wore Mylar blankets to represent the conditions that kids in detention are subjected to under her watch.”