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With his selection of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan to serve as acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), President Trump has once again shown that he has no regrets over his administration鈥檚 disastrous policy of separating families.

McAleenan was one of the three DHS officials to the cruel and inhumane policy to outgoing Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, writing that the department鈥檚 best option to 鈥渋ncrease the consequences for dangerous illegal crossings鈥� was to 鈥渄irect the separation of parents or legal guardians and minors held in immigration detention so that the parent or legal guardian can be prosecuted.鈥�

Despite signing the family separation memo and overseeing the very agency that implemented the policy, McAleenan stated in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that 鈥渨e do not have a policy of administrative separation.鈥� He later made the absurd claim that family separation was meant to 鈥�protect families and children,鈥� even though child welfare experts had warned that 鈥渟eparating children from their mothers or fathers leads to serious, negative consequences to children鈥檚 health and development.鈥�

Alarmingly, the president may bring back an expanded version of his administration鈥檚 family separation policy. According to , McAleenan has already indicated that he would be open to resuming large-scale family separation, and CNN that Trump 鈥渨anted families separated even if they came in at a legal port of entry and were legal asylum seekers鈥� and 鈥渨anted families separated even if they were apprehended within the U.S. He thinks the separations work to deter migrants from coming.鈥� While the president has this, he also defended family separation by saying that 鈥渙nce you don鈥檛 have it,鈥� migrants will be coming to the country 鈥渓ike it鈥檚 a picnic.鈥�

McAleenan鈥檚 involvement in family separation 鈥� and his reported willingness to re-open that shameful chapter 鈥� is just one element of his service to Trump鈥檚 policies that maximize cruelty.

On his watch, children in CBP custody have been violently abused and neglected. In December, 7-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin and 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo died in CBP custody 鈥� deaths that experts have . McAleenan Congress within 24 hours of Jakelin鈥檚 death even though it was required by law and he again omitted the tragedy when testifying before the Senate shortly thereafter. CBP has migrant families to sleep in dangerous conditions underneath an El Paso bridge, putting the health of hundreds of people in jeopardy. The agency at asylum-seekers across the border in Mexico, including toddlers. When asked during a why the chemical agent was used 鈥� especially in light of 鈥� McAleenan said it was 鈥渧ery unfortunate that parents [were] putting their children at risk and bringing them into that situation to try to rush through the border illegally.鈥� CBP agents are also notorious for committing ethnic profiling, carrying out illegal searches, and seizing religious items, such as bibles and rosaries, from migrants.

McAleenan has also been , even his unconstitutional emergency order to shift funds towards building the wall, contrary to Congress鈥� constitutional power of the purse.

This latest change in DHS leadership comes after Trump withdrew the nominee to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement and reports that the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the head DHS lawyer are set to resign. Reports suggest that, even though DHS leadership has repeatedly violated the law and executed blatantly inhumane policies throughout Trump鈥檚 tenure, the president is seeking even more compliant officials so that he can ratchet up the illegality and the inhumanity even further.

While we are still waiting to see Trump鈥檚 nominee for a permanent head of Homeland Security, by elevating McAleenan, the president has signaled that he seeks to create an even more brutal and lawless department.