He told Congress during the primaries that illegal immigration from Mexico was tapering off. He's fretted about "the terrible things" that happen to thousands of undocumented immigrant children on their journey — "particularly the young ladies on the way up." And he calls drug-related violence a far greater threat to Americans than Islamic terrorists.

Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, Donald Trump's pick to head the Department of Homeland Security, has struck a decidedly measured tone on some of the issues that helped propel the president-elect to victory.


And that's why Democrats and even some Republicans are counting on him to be a check on the new administration's most radical proposals to secure the border, remove undocumented immigrants from so-called sanctuary cities or profile Muslims. They also hope he will rein in the hardliners they fear Trump may tap to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the other law enforcement agencies that make of the vast department of 300,000 employees.

"I think he will stop some of the more dangerous inclinations of an ideological White House," said Juliette Kayyem, a former DHS official who advised Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and serves on a department advisory board with Kelly. "He appears to understand that the border is more than a wall. He understands the lifeline that is the U.S.-Mexico border for commercial activity."

At first glance, Kelly’s background appears well-suited to carry out Trump’s pledges crack down on illegal immigration and take on the domestic threat of Islamic terrorism. In his last military post, as head of U.S. Southern Command, he tracked smuggling routes in Central and South America and was the chief jailer for some of the world’s most hardened terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which he supported keeping open indefinitely. The retired Marine also lost a son in the war in Afghanistan in 2010, a personal tragedy that some who know him say could have hardened his views on Muslim extremists.

But a review of Kelly's public record indicates his views are far from radical. He’s also not entirely on-message with Trump confidants like retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn — Trump's pick for national security adviser, who has called Islam a "cancer" — or Sen. Jeff Sessions, his choice for attorney general, who is among the most hardline members of Congress on illegal immigration.

While Trump has described the throngs of Mexicans and others illegally entering the U.S. as “rapists” and criminals, Kelly points out that tens of thousands of them are children who often fall victim to crimes along the way.

Trump has said he wants to build a wall to keep Mexicans out, but Kelly said at a 2014 forum that the flow of immigrants had slowed on its own. “There are jobs in Mexico so we don't see as many movement — or as much movement," Kelly said at the time.

Some Trump critics have whispered that the loss of his son in Afghanistan has hardened Kelly's views on how to confront Islamic terrorism. And some officials inside the department privately express concern that the new leadership will rename programs to engage Muslim communities, now labeled "countering violent extremism," as "countering radical Islam."

"That could destroy relationships it took so hard to build with communities," said a senior DHS official who was not authorized to speak publicly. "That is the kind of thing that really makes people unsettled."

But Kelly's former boss Chuck Hagel, who was secretary of Defense from 2013 to 2015, dismisses the notion that his personal loss changed his views.

"That is about as devastating an experience that anyone could have," Hagel said in an interview. "It has to factor in to your thinking and your judgment. But he is very disciplined. I don't think he would let the trauma of his personal loss get in the way of his professional judgment."

Indeed, an adviser of Kelly's who was not authorized to speak on the record said that "the death of son didn't change his views about Islam."

Kelly has warned repeatedly about the potential for Islamic terrorists to take advantage of the porous Southern border. But he has said the bigger danger is illegal drugs.

"You know, since 9/11, there's — half a million people have died from narcoterrorism, as we call it in — down where I live," he said at a Washington forum in 2014. "Narcoterrorism. Five hundred thousand Americans have died. Very few have died from, you know, traditional terrorism, if you will, since 9/11."

Kelly has also gone out of his way to laud the work of American intelligence agencies, whom he will have to rely on to defend the U.S. homeland from terrorist attacks and respond to natural disasters. Appearing before a congressional hearing last year, Kelly called the CIA "one of our most valued partners."

"I've had the honor of serving with the CIA all over the world for my entire career, and this includes Iraq and Latin America," he added. "Like our men and women in uniform, I believe the men and women of the CIA are the best of their generation. When our country needs them most, the CIA always answers the call."

His new boss, however, has been bashing them as liars, incompetent and political lackeys for asserting that the Russian government used hackers to try to help Trump win the election.

Trump announced he was naming Kelly to the Homeland Security post on Monday, calling him "the right person to spearhead the urgent mission of stopping illegal immigration and securing our borders, streamlining [TSA] and improving coordination between our intelligence and law enforcement agencies.”

If confirmed by the Senate, Kelly will oversee a sprawling network of federal agencies that includes the Secret Service, Customs and Border Protection, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Coast Guard, TSA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"The American people voted in this election to stop terrorism, take back sovereignty at our borders, and put a stop to political correctness that for too long has dictated our approach to national security," Kelly, who served as the top military advisers to two secretaries of defense and is also close with current DHS chief Jeh Johnson, said in a statement.

But he also pledged to "tackle those issues with a seriousness of purpose and a deep respect for our laws and Constitution.”

The announcement was welcome by some of the most conservative Trump supporters. Breitbart News, until recently run by Trump adviser Steve Bannon, crowed that Kelly will speak "truth to power." The website describes itself as the voice of the "alt-right," a brand of conservatism often associated with racism and anti-Semitism.

It published a list of positions the general has taken in recent years that were in conflict with the Obama administration, including his resistance to closing the Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison and permitting women to serve in all combat roles in the military.

A DHS official who is critical of how Kelly treated inmates at Guantanamo nonetheless sees Kelly as someone who will listen to different viewpoints.

"He is a hell of a lot better and more trusted and more capable than the other list of guys that they were looking at," said the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly.

One particularly controversial circumstance where Kelly might resist the more zealous actions of the Trump team is on sanctuary cities, the official predicted. Trump has pledged to remove illegal immigrants from locales that have adopted policies not to prosecute undocumented residents simply for their immigration status. Some 40 cities reiterated this week that they will risk federal funds rather than change their policies.

Kelly "might be a force for moderation in those areas. He might help push back on the worst impulses of what at least candidate Trump and his people have said," said the official.

Others who have watched Kelly up close also do not consider him ideological.

"He doesn't seem very extreme one way or the other," said Jim Jones, a former Democratic congressman from Oklahoma and ambassador to Mexico.

"He is someone who is responsive and listens and is insightful and makes decision based on all the information he has available," added Michael Masters, a former executive director of the Cook County Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management in Illinois. Masters sits on several DHS advisory panels that focus on outreach to faith leaders and how to halt the flow foreign terrorists into the U.S.

But the biggest question, say current and former DHS officials, is whom Trump will choose to run some of the key law enforcement agencies that would fall under Kelly's authority — and would have to carry out deportations.

"Who the transition committee selects to head those other agencies is almost as important as Gen. Kelly himself," said Tom Ridge, who served as the first secretary of Homeland Security when the post was established in 2002. "It will be interesting to see if the transition team brings people up from within to run those agencies or brings new people in."

Jones, who also served as chief of staff to President Lyndon Johnson, agreed that the so-called operational agencies that fall under DHS "are the ones that will recommend policy to the secretary."

"That's where the crazy sheriffs' names are starting to pop in," warned the DHS official, referring to some of the harshest critics of immigration policy that Trump has surrounded himself with.

Kayyem, the former DHS official, similarly predicted that whoever heads ICE and CBP will go a long way in determining how radically U.S. government policies on counterterrorism and immigration will change — and how much pressure Kelly will face.

"Those two jobs, should they have an ideological inflection — which we assume those persons with have — will have a huge impact on people's lives," she said.

Andrew Hanna contributed to this report.