Georgetown Alumni Embarrassed of Fellow Graduate Kirstjen Nielsen

Hundreds of Georgetown University alumni are calling on Kirstjen Nielsen, a fellow alum, to resign as homeland security secretary over her role in separating migrant children from their parents at the border. "As alumni and students of the Jesuit tradition, we cannot stand silent as these atrocities are being committed," reads a Change.org petition launched last week by Christian Arana, a Georgetown alum. "The horrific family separations occurring at the U.S.-Mexico border requires us as Georgetown alumni to call on our fellow alumna -- Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen (SFS '94) -- to resign as head of the agency that has inflicted so much harm on children and families at the border." More than 900 people have signed the petition so far. It's unclear if every signer is in fact a Georgetown alum, but many have cited the year they graduated. Arana said his conversations with alumni on social media reflect overwhelming anger about Nielsen, who got her bachelor's degree at Georgetown. "It is clear that Georgetown alumni are outraged and speaking out against this and thus signing and sharing the petition," he told HuffPost. Nielsen has been one of the biggest defenders of President Donald Trump's zero tolerance immigration policy, which has separated more than 2,300 children from their parents so the adults can be criminally prosecuted for crossing the border without documentation. Previously, authorities typically kept migrant families together and routed them to immigration courts. Nielsen falsely claimed last week that "Congress alone" could end Trump's family separation policy and insisted lawmakers had to act. But days later, facing intense public scrutiny, Trump signed a hastily drafted executive order halting his policy -- with Nielsen standing by his side.