Mitch McConnell's wife steps in to defend him after he is confronted by protesters over separated children

'You leave my husband alone,' Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao says during confrontation with demonstrators

US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's wife stepped in to defend him after he was confronted by protesters over the Trump administration's family separation policy at the Mexican border.

Elaine Chao, who serves as transportation secretary, demanded demonstrators leave her husband alone as she pointed at the group.

The couple who married in 1993, were greeted by students from Georgetown University who stood outside Mr McConnell’s car playing an audio recording of migrant children crying in a detention centre on the US-Mexico border.

Approaching them as they left the building after an event at the university, one protester asked: “Why are you separating families?”

Ms Chao told them: “Why don’t you leave my husband alone? Why don’t you leave my husband alone?”

Mr McConnell did not respond and got into their SUV car.

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

Ms Chao, who was a cabinet member in George W Bush’s administration, was left visibly incensed – urging the demonstrators to “leave him alone”.

“No, he’s not [separating families]. You leave my husband alone,” she added, pointing at the group.

"How does he sleep at night?" a protester shouted back.

A student who identified himself as one of the protesters shared footage of the confrontation - which has garnered 2.9 million views - on Twitter.

“I am Roberto, a rising Senior at Georgetown University. After coming back from my internship at United We Dream, my friend texted me that both Senator Mitch McConnell and Trump cabinet member Elaine L Chao were present on campus,” he wrote on Twitter.

Explaining his parents are Mexican immigrants, he added: ”We asked why they were separating families and Elaine L Chao started yelling at us to leave her husband alone. My question is why they won’t leave our families, friends and communities alone? As my friend said, 'how do you sleep at night?'".

The encounter comes after a week of heightened tensions between Trump officials and the wider American public as controversy over the controversial policy that splits up families who illegally enter the US at the Mexican border.

Protesters heckled Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, while she was eating at a Mexican restaurant last week.

Demonstrators chanted “shame!” and noted the irony of the Trump official, who is responsible for implementing Mr Trump’s efforts to axe immigration, choosing to dine at a Mexican restaurant in Washington DC.

In a separate incident, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was also asked to leave a restaurant in Virginia.

The new “zero tolerance” immigration policy of splitting families at the US-Mexico border has been widely criticised.

Between 5 May and 9 June of this year more than 2,000 children were separated under the scheme, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

After consistently defending the policy, Mr Trump finally succumbed to pressure and signed an order overturning the practice last week. The order stated "family unity" will be maintained "where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources".

But the president's U-turn has been criticised for not going far enough and 17 US states and Washington DC are suing Mr Trump’s administration over its family separation policy.

The lawsuit was filed by 18 Democratic attorneys general and attempts to force the administration to reunite the approximately 2,000 separated children with their families. The executive order is "so vague and equivocal that it is unclear when or if any changes will actually be made" the lawsuit stated.