In an interview with NPR last week, White House chief of staff John Kelly tried to prove that neither he nor the immigration policies he helped promote were racist. He failed spectacularly. But on top of that, he revealed that the new Trump-endorsed tactic of separating from their families children found crossing the border is nothing but a terrorizing tactic.

"The children will be taken care of," he said, "put into foster care or whatever. But the big point is they elected to come illegally into the United States and this is a technique that no one hopes will be used extensively or for very long."

That's as much thought as Kelly has given to the safety and well-being of these children. "Or whatever." That's his best attempt to spin this as benign or humane. And it also turns out that he's wrong. According to a new report from the Associated Press, two officials have confirmed that the Department of Health and Human Services is considering keeping those detained children on military bases in Texas and Arkansas.

In the past, HHS has used military bases as housing for migrant children when the number of border crossings surged; but that was temporary and in response to a crisis. While Kelly insists that "no one hopes" this draconian policy will last very long, no one in the Trump administration has given any indications of when it would be scrapped or even if it would in fact be temporary. And the sheer number of children crossing the border shows just how much money and resources will be eaten for no other reason than to terrorize people already fleeing for their lives in many cases. The AP breaks down the figures:

The Department of Homeland Security has limited space to house families that are kept together—only about 2,700 beds at three family detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania. In April alone, people who came as families accounted for nearly 10,000 Border Patrol arrests. Another 4,300 were unaccompanied children.

Nearly 1 in 4 Border Patrol arrests on the Mexican border from October through April was someone who came in a family. That means any large increase in prosecutions will likely cause parents to be separated from their children while they face charges and do time in jail.

DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen defended the policy before the Senate this week, saying that undocumented immigrants are separated from their children "in the United States every day." It's telling that the strongest argument she can muster isn't that the policy is moral, humane, or even effective—just that it's common.