White House chief of staff John Kelly defended the Trump administration’s decision to impose a zero-tolerance border policy that calls for the prosecution of illegal immigrants, even if doing so temporarily splits up their families.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said this week that the government was adopting a zero tolerance approach to the policy enacted in 2008 that calls for the prosecution of illegal immigrants, which can lead to decisions to hold their children in detention centers in the meantime. But when asked if this policy is “cruel and heartless,” Kelly rejected that and said the children would be taken care of.