2007, among other barriers. According to CNN, Kelly has played a central part in scuppering efforts by congressional leaders to capitalize on signals from the president that he might support bipartisan immigration reform, particularly to protect DACA recipients, who have been targeted for deportation under the Trump administration, even before the program was rescinded. And it appears that Kelly has continued to wield considerable power over DHS.

In November, as acting DHS secretary Elaine Duke was preparing to extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to the 57,000 Honduran recipients of the humanitarian program, she was reportedly bullied by Kelly to end TPS for refugees from that country. Instead, Duke failed to make a determination, which gave Honduras a six-month extension by default. Soon after, she announced her retirement from governmentservice.

The current DHS secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, is a Kelly protégé. Nielsen served as Kelly’s senior aide during his tenure at DHS and moved with him to the West Wing as his principal deputy chief of staff when he was appointed in July. Kelly lobbied for Nielsen’s appointment at DHS, though Trump was likely unaware she had served in the department under the George W. Bush administration, which meant some conservatives saw her as too soft on immigration.

Former officials have said Nielsen is one of Trump’s fiercest loyalists and is someone who has “zero independent political power” in Washington and who is “a hundred percent this White House and John Kelly.” Nielsen, it seems, is simply implementing the president’s anti-immigrant agenda, including a new policy of separating children from