According to President Donald Trump’s outgoing chief of staff General John Kelly, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was responsible for the administration’s “zero-tolerance policy” for immigration law violations.

In an interview with the LA Times, Kelly asserted that Session’s announcement in May of the hardline stance caught the White House by surprise. U.S. officials already had begun to put the enforcement policy into practice, reportedly resulting in hundreds of migrant children being separated from their parents.

“What happened was Jeff Sessions, he was the one that instituted the zero-tolerance process on the border that resulted in both people being detained and the family separation,” Kelly told the LA Times. “He surprised us.”

Sessions has long been known for his law-and-order bonafides, with Kelly’s comments affirming that this did not waver during Sessions’ tenure as attorney general before he resigned last month.

Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn