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Separated: Inside an American Tragedy Kindle Edition
by Jacob Soboroff (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 2,620 ratings
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"The seminal book on the child-separation policy." —Rachel Maddow
The award-winning NBC News correspondent lays bare the full truth behind America’s systematic separation of families at the US-Mexico border.
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist | American Book Award Winner | American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award Finalist
In June 2018, Donald Trump’s most notorious decision as president had secretly been in effect for months before most Americans became aware of the astonishing inhumanity being perpetrated by their own government—the deliberate separation of migrant parents and children at U.S. border facilities. 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, D.C., 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 as America struggles to reset its immigration policies post-Trump.
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Print length
448 pages
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Review
"The seminal book on the child-separation policy." ― Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show "As a correspondent for NBC News, Soboroff was among the the first to report on the Trump administration's family separation policy; here, he digs deeper into its roots and consequences." ― New York Times Book Review, "New & Notable" "Jacob Soboroff's excellent reporting at the border helped shine a light on Trump's cruel family separation policy. His new book, Separated, is a sobering account of what he saw and the human toll of the Trump agenda." ― Julián Castro "Jacob Soboroff zooms in on President Trump and his administration’s decision to separate children from their parents as a deterrent to border crossers. In doing so, he illuminates how, in the face of congressional inaction, a cadre of presidential advisers can introduce policies with shocking, unintended consequences." ― Laura Wides-Muñoz, Washington Post “This book is important. Everyone should read it. We have to face our demons as a country, and this is an opportunity to face our demons.” ― Joy-Ann Reid “Groundbreaking. … All the original reporting in this book is extraordinary.” ― Andrea Mitchell "To experience the pain and anger many suburban voters felt about Trump’s policy of ripping children from the arms of their asylum-seeking parents along the southern border, I’d recommend Separated: Inside an American Tragedy by Jacob Soboroff." ― Eugene Robinson, Washington Post "Fantastic. ... Serves as a blueprint, honestly, for everything that we are seeing now in the pandemic, everything wrong with this administration, it's all right there in black and white. ... The book is fantastic, the reporting is fantastic." ― Chris Hayes "Soboroff’s thoroughly engaging exposé of the inner workings of a corrupt and unfeeling government is essential to understanding America's current immigration misery." ― Booklist (starred review)
About the Author
Jacob Soboroff is a correspondent and anchor for NBC News and MSNBC. For his reporting on the child-separation policy, he received the 2019 Walter Cronkite Award for Individual Achievement by a National Journalist and the 2019 Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism. He has appeared on Today, Morning Joe, The Rachel Maddow Show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and numerous other programs. He co-presented (with Katy Tur) the four-part event docuseries American Swamp on MSNBC. He lives in Los Angeles.
Product details
ASIN : B07Z3SDYYW
Publisher : Custom House (7 July 2020)
Language : English
File size : 4864 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 448 pagesBest Sellers Rank: 524,603 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)42 in Southwestern United States History
96 in History of Immigrants in the United States
167 in Emigration & ImmigrationCustomer Reviews:
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 2,620 ratings
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Jacob Soboroff
Jacob Soboroff is a correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC. For his reporting on the child-separation policy, he received the 2019 Walter Cronkite Award for Individual Achievement by a National Journalist and the 2019 Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism. He has appeared on Today, Morning Joe, The Rachel Maddow Show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and numerous other programs. He co-presented (with Katy Tur) the four-part event docuseries American Swamp on MSNBC. He lives in Los Angeles.
Top reviews from other countries
Thomas A Hebert
5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Important Book on the Trump Administration's Family Separation Policy.Reviewed in Canada on 14 August 2021
Verified Purchase
Jacob Soboroff sets out the story of this policy clearly and masterfully. His prose is sharp and succinct. The inhumanity and horror of the policy comes through very powerfully. His account of this American Tragedy makes it clear that it was a deliberate policy choice, not merely a bureaucratic snafu. It is an excellent work of contemporary journalism written with great empathy and humanity. The Afterword to the paperback edition makes the story even worse.
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Eulah M. Helms
5.0 out of 5 stars OutstandingReviewed in the United States on 4 December 2024
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Well written and informative
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Biscuit
5.0 out of 5 stars Necessary readingReviewed in the United States on 6 October 2024
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Much respect to Jacob Soboroff for his in-depth research and reporting on this sad time.
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Barbara Tomik
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read!Reviewed in Canada on 11 July 2020
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Well written, lots of details that I did not previously glean from cable news shows. Jacob is someone who we will be seeing lots of in the future
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C.Stastny Books
5.0 out of 5 stars Very informativeReviewed in the United States on 30 July 2021
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This non-fiction piece was a reporter’s deep-dive journey into piecing together one of the greatest human-made catastrophes of our nation’s history—the family separations of mostly central-American immigrants from the Zero-Tolerance policies that were put into effect during the Trump administration. With no foundation in place to track these separated children and their parents, thousands of lives were traumatized when these policies were put in place and American agencies—understaffed and underfunded—were not in any position to care for the thousands of “unaccomapanied minors” suddenly thrust into their care.
I came away being sickened the most by the leaders that pushed for these policies and carried out the awful acts (even in secret before they became legitimate announced policies) and held no remorse for their actions, and even profited in their careers from their loyalty to the chief. But there were some in the background who were horrified and trying (with the little power they had) to put families back together when churches, humanitarian agencies, and finally the courts castigated the Trump administration for flagrant abuse of their Constitutional authority when the whole hulabaloo came to light to the American public. Still, so many lives forever changed by the trauma of those months of separation and incarceration. Made me sad to read the nit-picky details of a portion of the atrocities that went on—done by Americans on American soil to innocents. It was a page out of Nazi Germany, in my opinion. This book isn’t entertaining. It’s informative. It has tons of documents—emails, legal affidavits, that type of stuff that can make for tedious reading. But it does give a better glimpse into what went on during that time for a few specific individuals, and how the American agencies were handling it (or mishandling it, more like).
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The Black Mzungu
The Impact, Truth, and Cruelty
Reviewed in the United States on 15 November 2020There has been so much chaos, divisiveness, and discourse over the last 4 years that we sometimes become numb to the cruelty of an administration that told us exactly what it planned to do. It is sad that 70 million folks have implicitly endorsed the policy, among others, with their vote. Granted, many voters are not one-issue voters; however, this "zero tolerance" policy is emblematic of other cruel "them vs. us" rhetoric, and worse, their actions.
Thankfully throughout the cruelty, Jacob Soboroff, keeps this issue in the crowded headlines. I appreciated how he captured the true stories of those affected (e,g., Juan and his son Jose).
I am hopeful that our institutions are trying to hold despite incredible pressure from the Executive branch. Asylum is legal but has been criminalized as indicative of the excerpts below,
Quoting case law, Judge Sabraw, a George W. Bush appointee, declared that a “practice of this sort implemented in this way is likely to be ‘so egregious, so outrageous, that it may fairly be said to shock the contemporary conscience,’ interferes with rights ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty,’ and is so ‘brutal’ and ‘offensive’ that it [does] not comport with traditional ideas of fair play and decency."
Sabraw characterized the current state of affairs as a “chaotic circumstance of the Government’s own making” that “has reached a crisis level,” resulting in “the casual, if not deliberate, separation of families.” That the Trump administration had “no reunification plan in place” was “a startling reality.”
[Physicians for Human Rights].... “U.S. officials,” the group wrote, “intentionally carried out discriminatory actions that caused severe pain and suffering, in order to punish, coerce, and intimidate Central American asylum seekers to give up their asylum claims.”
Thankfully throughout the cruelty, Jacob Soboroff, keeps this issue in the crowded headlines. I appreciated how he captured the true stories of those affected (e,g., Juan and his son Jose).
I am hopeful that our institutions are trying to hold despite incredible pressure from the Executive branch. Asylum is legal but has been criminalized as indicative of the excerpts below,
Quoting case law, Judge Sabraw, a George W. Bush appointee, declared that a “practice of this sort implemented in this way is likely to be ‘so egregious, so outrageous, that it may fairly be said to shock the contemporary conscience,’ interferes with rights ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty,’ and is so ‘brutal’ and ‘offensive’ that it [does] not comport with traditional ideas of fair play and decency."
Sabraw characterized the current state of affairs as a “chaotic circumstance of the Government’s own making” that “has reached a crisis level,” resulting in “the casual, if not deliberate, separation of families.” That the Trump administration had “no reunification plan in place” was “a startling reality.”
[Physicians for Human Rights].... “U.S. officials,” the group wrote, “intentionally carried out discriminatory actions that caused severe pain and suffering, in order to punish, coerce, and intimidate Central American asylum seekers to give up their asylum claims.”
4 people found this helpful
SArmst2547
Enforced child-parent separations violate international human rights standards
Reviewed in the United States on 19 August 2020After WW II, orphans and discarded or separated children flooded across Europe. It led London psychoanalyst John Bowlby to write three books on child-parent separations. His studies became the psychological basis of UNHCR and the United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights, which the United States subscribed to.
Until this episode in our history.
This is a brilliant book that illuminates how the United States government under Trump, Jeff Sessions, and an anti-immigrant philosophy managed to slip Hispanic child-parent separations past the (unconcerned? uninformed? indifferent?) American public.
The internment of Japanese Americans in WW II was bad, illegal, racist, and unconstitutional. Can you believe that this is worse? I think so.
Great book, well written, and a pointed condemnation of our public policy of deliberately making children orphans of asylum seekers.
Until this episode in our history.
This is a brilliant book that illuminates how the United States government under Trump, Jeff Sessions, and an anti-immigrant philosophy managed to slip Hispanic child-parent separations past the (unconcerned? uninformed? indifferent?) American public.
The internment of Japanese Americans in WW II was bad, illegal, racist, and unconstitutional. Can you believe that this is worse? I think so.
Great book, well written, and a pointed condemnation of our public policy of deliberately making children orphans of asylum seekers.
4 people found this helpful
MC
You owe it to your country to read this book
Reviewed in the United States on 5 August 2020The truth is that this is a difficult story to read. That is because it is the story of how the Trump administration tortured parents and their children by separating, caging and then incarcerating them in separate states solely to deter humans from other countries from seeking asylum. They even separated children under 5 years of age from their parents and kept the parents in the dark so they did not know if they would ever see their child again.
Mixed in with the monsters promoting and implementing this policy were a few heroes who fought to prevent it or at least mitigate the damage, including the attorney’s and the judge who forced the reunification.
The author did a great job detailing each step, or misstep, and bringing it all alive by following a father and son who went to hell and back.
It is a story that had to be told but it will not matter if there is no one interested enough to listen. It is a maddening but ultimately rewarding read.
Well documented, well paced, well written.
Mixed in with the monsters promoting and implementing this policy were a few heroes who fought to prevent it or at least mitigate the damage, including the attorney’s and the judge who forced the reunification.
The author did a great job detailing each step, or misstep, and bringing it all alive by following a father and son who went to hell and back.
It is a story that had to be told but it will not matter if there is no one interested enough to listen. It is a maddening but ultimately rewarding read.
Well documented, well paced, well written.
16 people found this helpful
mwendydunlap
The Shame of the Century
Reviewed in the United States on 7 August 2021The story of the planned separation of hundreds of children from their family members is riveting and frightening. The policy, the planning, the carrying out, the denial and cover ups to media, investigators and attorneys are made small by the predicted one hundred year damage children and their families, generations ahead. Our government's cruelty to families continues. It appears we have learned nothing from our treatment of Japanese Americans and Native Americans. Shame on us. Thank goodness for Freedom of the Press.
Nancy Collins
Separated: Evil Is slow to separate but quick to spread.
Reviewed in the United States on 2 August 2020Soboroff writes a clearly documented text of the separation of parents and children and of who did what when. As I was watching PBS evening news report on the violence in Portland, Chad Wolf appears to justify the actions of sending in American forces to attack American citizens. I immediately grabbed my journal and quickly wrote “who is Chad Wolf?” The next day I was reading all about him and his sinister dealings in Soboroff’s text. What a coincidence, not to mention evidence of continued sleazy behavior. I recommend the book to anyone wanting to keep up with current events.
3 people found this helpful
Judith Kelsey-Powell
American tragedy
Reviewed in the United States on 18 November 2021Having followed the story as Soboroff and his colleagues reported it on MSNBC at the time, most of it was very familiar to me. But it is a somewhat different experience to sit and read it as a long, continuous narrative unbroken by the other events in the news and in our personal lives. The book quotes an expert calling the separation torture, and agrees with that assessment. I can't disagree. It certainly was a human rights abuse that is another blot on American history.
Delaney
Great job.
Reviewed in the United States on 13 July 2020I expected more angst. But what you have here is exactly what it is, a Reporters book. This book gives us an up front view of the experience and front line looks from a reporter. Goes along as the policies were made the people making them. Separating lies and truths. The running to and from the border and detention centers. His conversations with attorneys and their fight for their clients.
The story of a father and sons sepation. Bits and pieces of others. I finished this book and then went to the news and I felt like I just turned the page.
If you haven’t followed this policy (I have), this is a great reference.
The story of a father and sons sepation. Bits and pieces of others. I finished this book and then went to the news and I felt like I just turned the page.
If you haven’t followed this policy (I have), this is a great reference.
7 people found this helpful
lplynn
Plodding
Reviewed in the United States on 18 October 2022Bought this because of all the positive reviews from news commentators whom I respect. And as a topic, it is definitely a subject in which I have an interest. For some reason, tho, I just can't seem to "get into the book". Its definitely one of those I'll have to put away for a while, and take a stab at later. Better luck to you.
One person found this helpful
Nazz
Now I Shockingly Understand!
Reviewed in the United States on 13 August 2020When I watched Soboroff doing the reports live on TV, I knew something was off. He looked physically ill and I said to myself, I pray that whatever he saw, he could overcome it. I couldn't wait to get the book to find out what transformed him so sickly in days! I now know and understand, I had to read the book twice! A SHOCKING MUST READ!!!
4 people found this helpful
Erma DeWitt
Well written
Reviewed in the United States on 18 July 2020Some of it was hard to read. I had to put it down because it was so sad and tears were flooding my eyes. When my eyes dried up I could start again reading. History is not going to be good for the US for this happening. This needed to be told for the next generation to know what is happening here in the US.
11 people found this helpful
Rhainz
A must read for every American.
Reviewed in the United States on 11 July 2020As many of us do, I believe the separation of migrant children from their parents is a shame that the United States will never be able to live down. Our souls were darkened by this horrible policy. Jacob Soboroff reported on the separation and his book shows us how it happened. His inclusion of the tale of a father and son caught in the trap brings a reality and heart to his reporting.
101 people found this helpful
Fox
An Extremely Disturbing Account
Reviewed in the United States on 9 August 2020This story from start to finish of how the Trump Administration initiated the separation policy while at the same time denying it and the horrific mess they created by doing this is deeply disturbing. I hope lots of people read this book.
Whether Republican or Democrat or whatever affiliation to not think this was horrible and tragic is to be completely inhuman.
Whether Republican or Democrat or whatever affiliation to not think this was horrible and tragic is to be completely inhuman.
4 people found this helpful
Susan M
Amazing story
Reviewed in the United States on 6 September 2020This book is a quick read. I could not put it down. Love Jacobs writing style and how he laid out the timeline. So sad that the mayhem/illegality he describes is still happening to this day. It’s not right. This Administration and the people that perpetrate/s/ed this injustice will get their comeuppance.
One person found this helpful
Bob
Well Written, Informative Book
Reviewed in the United States on 17 December 2020This shocking book was incredible and informed us about all the lies and distortions relative to the children. Most were held captive in cages and hundreds if not thousands were separated from parents and were never tracked again. This is reprehensible and another smear of our democracy.
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