There are many moments in Oscar-winning director Errol Morris’s 2024 chilling documentary, “Separated,” that will stir you deeply. Imagine being a child, terrifyingly arrested after a grueling journey from south of the border, torn from your parent and locked up with no language, no money, and no understanding of what is happening. This, then, was the situation for more than 4,000 children due to the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy during his first presidency.
The film, based on NBC political and national correspondent Jacob Soboroff’s book, “Separated: Inside an American Tragedy,” screens at the M.V. Film Center on Wednesday, July 23. Following the film, longtime seasonal resident and Academy Award–nominated producer and director David Helpern, along with M.V. Film Society executive director and founder Richard Paradise, will speak with Jacob Soboroff via Zoom.
The film moves quickly, creating a sense of urgency about the subject. Morris uses compelling fictional re-enactments of a mother and son’s plight to enhance his sharp interviews with government officials. This combination effectively exposes the pain caused by Trump’s family separation policy, which aimed to deter illegal immigration by separating migrant children from their parents or guardians when they crossed the border unlawfully.
Morris breaks down the complex sequence of events, beginning with audio clips of Clinton, Bush, and Obama discussing border security. He then segues into Trump speaking about his plans for building a great wall. We then meet Capt. Jonathan White, deputy director at the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a straight-shooter whom we hear from frequently as the story unfolds. “I’ve spoken about family separation in court and before Congress. I haven’t spoken about it publicly, because it’s inconsistent with my duties as a public official,” he tells us at the outset. He describes what happened to ORR’s Unaccompanied Child Program, which focuses on ensuring the safety, well-being, and development of minors who are in the U.S. without a parent or legal guardian. “Family separation was about children with their families. The Unaccompanied Child Program was hijacked for a purpose it was never intended nor authorized by law … It was established to protect children, and instead was used as a tool to take children from their parents.”
Family separation stemmed from the administration’s zero-tolerance policy, which mandated the prosecution of all undocumented immigrants and the separation of children from their parents during detention. Some in the administration pushed to eliminate what they considered the too lenient “catch and release” approach, where individuals seeking asylum were allowed to stay in the country while waiting for their court dates, and children, unless there was a compelling reason, were permitted to remain with their families.
Through interviews with various individuals, we hear the insidious march forward toward family separation starting in 2017, and how it was used surreptitiously at first, even while those in the White House and other officials were denying ORR’s documentation of an unprecedented increase.
On camera, Soboroff describes his initial awareness of the policy, and then later, when the administration was touting it, being invited to a Texas facility and seeing hundreds of children locked in cages, sitting on cold concrete or linoleum. Soboroff reflects, “They thought that by showing the world, they would scare people from coming, and scare Congress to have [stricter] immigration laws.” Lee Gelernt, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, describes the ACLU’s decision to initiate a legal challenge, saying, “This was just blatant, gratuitous cruelty.”
In addition to many other powerful testaments in the interviews, the fictionalized re-enactments of Gabriela Cartol and Diego Armando Lara Lagunes’ experiences make the narrative personal.
Although international public outcry and courageous legal decisions helped bring about the end of family separation, the story does not have a happy ending. Out of the at least 4,227 children who were taken from their parents, as many as 1,052 remain separated these many years later, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Equally as sobering are White’s words at the end of the film, “I can only imagine the harm it has done to thousands of children and parents. So, yes, it troubles me profoundly that it could happen again, and the steps to prevent it … have not been taken.”
In a telephone interview, Soboroff says, “The book came out five years ago. I think what’s amazing about the film today is that not only is it a look back at what one of the Republican-appointed judges who stopped the policy called one of the most shameful chapters in the history of the country, it is a roadmap for how the administration wanted to do what they’re doing right now. So if you want to understand what’s happening in Los Angeles and cities across the country, there’s no better place to look than Errol’s film, because he dives deep into the psychology behind what allows the administration and a bureaucracy to do something that was so deliberately cruel and needlessly harmful.”
Soboroff continues, “I’m so excited for people to see it because … it’s a reminder of not only how we got here, but the people behind it. and how they are back in power today. Also, maybe, most importantly, it was the power of dedicated civil servants and an energized electorate to take to the streets to protest [that helped] stop the policy back in 2018. So when I see the protestors out there now, I see echoes of what happened then.”
“Separated” screens on July 23, followed by a discussion with Jacob Soboroff, author of “Separated: Inside an American Tragedy.” For tickets and information, visit mvfilmsociety.com.
