In January (can you believe it’s been that long?), the Senate voted overwhelmingly 88–11 to confirm John Kelly to run Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. Many of the Democrats who voted for Kelly expressed their belief that he would be a moderating force on the president.

Perhaps the fact that he was the Commander of the US Southern Command under Obama made people think that he wouldn’t be much of an ideologue. But US policies in Latin America (where the Southern Command covers) are exactly the type of toxic policies that Trump expressed a desire to expand on the home front. The US in Latin America has historically (and to the present day — including under Obama) backed predatory extractive corporations over democratically elected governments, supported or participated in military coups, and militarized police forces as part of the drug war. Human rights abuses across Latin America can often be traced back to the US in some way or another.

Well, it’s the end of the year now, and Kelly’s critics were right, and those who thought he would be a moderating force are terribly wrong. He’s chief of staff now, where he offers no check on Trump’s impulsiveness and further fuels his racism and xenophobia. DHS under Trump has ripped families apart with recklessness and glee. ICE arrests have surged 40 percent from last year, with people held in detention centers whose conditions can rightly be called torture. DHS has shown lawlessness in its embrace of Trump’s racist and unconstitutional Muslim ban and heartlessness in ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitian refugees.

With Kelly now Trump’s chief of staff, Trump chose to nominate Kelly’s chief of staff, Kirstjen Nielsen, to head DHS.

She was confirmed 62–37 yesterday.

11 members of the Democratic caucus were apparently fine with what Trump’s DHS has been up to this year:

Tom Carper (D-DE)

Chris Coons (D-DE)

Joe Donnelly (D-IN)

Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)

Angus King (I-ME)

Joe Manchin (D-WV)

Claire McCaskill (D-MO)

Bill Nelson (D-FL)

Jack Reed (D-RI)

Jon Tester (D-MT)

Mark Warner (D-VA)

One expects a certain degree of political cowardice from the Democratic senators representing states that Trump won; however, Clinton won Delaware and Rhode Island with double digits and Maine and Virginia with smaller margins. Moreover, Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA), Gary Peters (D-MI), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) all represent states that Trump won — but all voted the right way.