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Separated: Inside an American Tragedy
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About This Book
A story every American should reckon with—a tale of love and heartbreak, cruelty and determination. In June 2018, Donald Trump's most notorious decision as president—the systematic separation of thousands of desperate migrant families at the US-Mexico border—had secretly been in effect for months before most Americans became aware of the astonishing inhumanity being perpetrated by their own government. Jacob Soboroff was among the first journalists to expose this reality after seeing firsthand the living conditions of the children in custody. His influential series of reports ignited public scrutiny that contributed to the president reversing his own policy and earned Soboroff the Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Broadcast Journalism and, with his colleagues, the 2019 Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism. But beyond the headlines, the complete, multilayered story lay untold. How, exactly, had such a humanitarian tragedy—now deemed "torture" by physicians—happened on American soil? Most important, what has been the human experience of those separated children and parents? Soboroff has spent the past two years reporting the many strands of this complex narrative, developing sources from within the Trump administration who share critical details for the first time. He also traces the dramatic odyssey of one separated family from Guatemala, where their lives were threatened by narcos, to seek asylum at the U.S. border, where they were separated—the son ending up in Texas, and the father thousands of miles away, in the Mojave desert of central California. And he joins the heroes who emerged to challenge the policy, and who worked on the ground to reunite parents with children. In this essential reckoning, Soboroff weaves together these key voices with his own experience covering this national issue—at the border in Texas, California, and Arizona; with administration officials in Washington, DC, and inside the disturbing detention facilities. Separated lays out compassionately, yet in the starkest of terms, its human toll, and makes clear what is at stake in the 2020 presidential election. From award-winning NBC News and MSNBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff comes a powerful and deeply reported journey to lay bare the full truth behind the defining moral crisis of the Trump years.
Reviews
"MSNBC correspondent Soboroff examines the origins and ramifications of the Trump administration's 'deliberate and systemic separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents' in his harrowing and deeply informed debut ..."
"Readers interested in learning more about immigration policy will be drawn to this captivating account, which deftly weaves together the political and the personal."
"Soboroff, who acknowledges that he came to the story late, offers generous recognition to fellow journalists and the advocates who saw the looming crisis well before he did — though an index and detailed endnotes would have made it easier to keep track of their findings and given the book a heftier feel."
"Separated...will give you a sense of how the United States, a country that prides itself on its constitutional protections, also possesses a body of immigration laws that can be weaponized by an executive branch willing to do it ..."
"A book of justifiably righteous indignation at—and condemnation of—a monstrous program."
"Supported by a time line and copious source notes, Soboroff's thoroughly engaging exposé of the inner workings of a corrupt and unfeeling government is essential to understanding America's current immigration misery."
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