"Separated": Film Shows How Trump Tore Immigrant Families Apart as 1,300 Kids Still Alone

[Uncle Joe]

We speak with Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris about his new documentary, Separated , based on NBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff’s book of the same name. The film details the horrors of the Trump “zero tolerance” immigration policy, under which thousands of immigrant children were forcibly separated from their parents after they crossed the southern U.S. border, part of the administration’s broader crackdown on immigration. The cruel policy was enforced as early as July 2017, initially without public acknowledgment by Trump officials. It was ultimately rescinded amid widespread outrage, but it continues to impact the families who were targeted, and about 1,000 children remain effectively orphaned years later, with authorities and rights groups still unable to locate their parents. “It wouldn’t have happened were it not for decades of bipartisan deterrence-based immigration policy that continues to this day,” says Soboroff. Morris says “the most appalling part of the policy” was the lack of record-keeping. “OK, let’s separate the children, but let’s not actually keep a record of how to ever reunite them. Let’s separate them for good. Let’s just create orphans, abandon children,” he says. Separated plays for a week at the IFC Center in New York, starting tonight, before it gets wider theatrical distribution and airs on MSNBC this December.

Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. It's what the US Government did to Indigenous nations in the 19th Century

Tore the kids from the tribes and sent them to boarding schools to erase "Indian" culture. White people making natives into white people. White Christian Dominion Rule is nothing new.

[Bayard]

2. That's one thing I haven't seen mentioned in the debates at all

When trump/vance are jabbering about border policy, hit them with what they did to these kids.

[progressoid]

3. That clip with Don Jr is infuriating.

You can tell that he knows he's full of shit and he just got called out on it.

[et tu]

4. just deplorable

children need their parents to love and protect them.
how will these neglected children act when they are adults?