Jacob Soboroff Profile picture
Jun 24, 2018 20 tweets 13 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
East & Central time friends: this is your one hour warning.

Our @DatelineNBC border special all about how we got here — The Dividing Line — starts at 7/6C on @NBC. #Dateline
15 minutes. We'll be tweeting during the show.

A few of the many on our @DatelineNBC team who made The Dividing Line possible: @elizcole @erikaglass_ @pfryan @NBCiz @sidoolittle @AarneHeikkila @ChadBergacs @TimAlHarby @JaclynSpirer @MunirAtalla @DanaRoecker @rcolvill

#Dateline
And of course -- how could I forget! -- follow @DatelineNBCProd for the live-tweeted BTS on how this project came together.

3 minutes until showtime.
Here we go.

@DatelineNBC's The Dividing Line -- about how we arrived at the horror of child migrants separated from their parents -- now on @NBC.

Tune in.

#Dateline
Going inside that McAllen border patrol processing station, and seeing the kids separated from their parents in cages, was sickening.

#Dateline
The Chief of the Border Patrol sector at the epicenter of family separations told me 180 MS-13 members were caught in his sector -- he said a 300% increase.

But total number caught was 187,000 last year.

A *fraction of a percent* of the overall total.

#Dateline
I will never forget Sintia or the Guillens.

They're what this week has been all about.

We met them under the Anzalduas bridge in Mission, Texas.

#Dateline
Donald Trump is hardly the first president to try deterrence as a border strategy.

Bill Clinton tried it in the 1990's -- it stopped the flow of migrants -- but it also had tragic consequences.

Death rates skyrocketed.

#Dateline
We went out on a scorching April day in the desert near Marana, Arizona with a veteran of the @NoMoreDeaths humanitarian group.

They leave water out for migrants crossing to help save lives.

The Border Patrol was caught dumping them out.

#Dateline
This Border Patrol agent was caught on camera dumping out water left by @NoMoreDeaths.

#Dateline
Tom Kay is a cattle rancher in Southern Arizona.

He took me to his own personal stretch of border.

We're standing in Mexico here.

He wants a wall, but the Border Patrol drives him nuts.

#Dateline
We're halfway through the hour.

Up next -- the truth about the drugs Trump says are "pouring in."

Spoiler: it's not what he says.

Anyone watching?

#Dateline
Turns out, drugs *aren't* pouring in where there's no wall.

They come through *legal* crossings.

We went to the Otay Mesa port of entry.

Within minutes of getting there @CBP made a massive drug bust -- over $500,000 of cocaine.

#Dateline
And violence isn't pouring in either -- as Trump says it is.

That's exactly what the Tijuana coroner told us -- and his city is Mexico's most violent. 6 murders every single day.

20 miles away, San Diego is one of America's safest big cities. nbcnews.com/news/crime-cou…

#Dateline
Jeff Sessions called El Paso "ground zero" in the fight against MS-13 and gangs.

But when we got there -- we didn't see anything like that.

Only 100s of American kids walking across the border to school daily.

They weren't scared, at all.

#Dateline
Just after the zero tolerance policy was announced, I asked @SecNielsen about family separations.

She said families should go to ports of entry.

I told her 130,000 were turned away at ports of entry over seven months, including asylum seekers.

#Dateline
For the record, we requested a follow-up interview with @SecNielsen after I went inside the McAllen detention center, where I saw kids in cages.

She declined.

#Dateline
We found Sintia this week months after meeting her in Texas.

She faces an uncertain future -- now that AG Sessions has instructed immigration judges not to consider gang violence in asylum claims.

We asked why she wants to stay here.

"To not live in fear anymore."

#Dateline
Thanks for watching -- and sorry for the #Dateline tweetstorm.

The next chapter of this story is tent camps for migrants and indefinite detention for families.

And of course reuniting 2,053 kids still in the custody of HHS that were taken from their parents.

We won't stop.
This ended up on the cutting room floor of our #Dateline special.

I met a coyote — a human smuggler — and asked if Trump’s wall would stop migrants.

“That’s not an obstacle for someone who is suffering from hunger, misery and poverty in their country.”

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More from @jacobsoboroff

Oct 2, 2018
This is America.

ICE's Adelanto Processing Center in California -- where I've been twice to meet a separated father for @chrislhayes & @allinwithchris -- had "nooses in detainee cells," "improper and overly restrictive segregation," and "untimely and inadequate" medical care.
The words of an Adelanto detainee:

"I’ve seen a few attempted suicides using the braided sheets by the vents and then the guards laugh at them and call them ‘suicide failures’ once they are back from medical."
On my first trip to Adelanto to meet separated father Ascención, who said he was coerced into giving up his son, ICE didn't let me in despite knowing I was coming.

He wrote me this letter which his lawyers brought out:

"I am going crazy. I am in an inhumane situation."
Read 6 tweets
Aug 15, 2018
Going in @ICEgov detention center in SoCal to meet still-separated dad Ascencion who signed form saying he didn’t want to be reunited with his 15 year old son — says he didn’t know what he was signing.

I’m with his lawyers from @ImmDef.

Not sure if ICE will let me meet him.
No luck.

We were met by these agents from ICE and Geo Group, private prison that runs Adelanto.

Guy on left said they were expecting me but I couldn’t get in to see Ascencion despite advance notice.

Waited three hours while attorneys went in.

ICE says maybe next week.
Ascencion sent out this letter for me to read:

They‘re deporting me without me knowing. The government is treating me very badly. I‘m being ignored.

The separation is affecting me a lot. I don’t know that I will ever forget this. I am going crazy. I am in an inhumane situation.
Read 5 tweets
Aug 3, 2018
NEW: Trump administration says in order to reunite remaining 572 separated kids @ACLU — *not* government which separated them — should be responsible for:

- Establishing contact
- Determining desire to be reunified & written confirmation
- Attorney consultation
- Data gathering
NEW: ACLU tells me “the administration is sitting on information that will allow the parties to find these parents."

572 kids still separated.

Latest, with @JuliaEAinsley & @erikjhortiz. nbcnews.com/storyline/immi…
After the Trump administration suggested @ACLU should reunite remaining 572 separated kids, @mitchellreports nailed it:

"The last time I looked we did not vote for the ACLU to be running the government or DHS or anything else in this country. I think we voted for Donald Trump."
Read 4 tweets
Jul 27, 2018
I’m in San Diego. Going into court to watch Trump administration and @ACLU meet a day after the reunification deadline.

DHS says all “eligible” parents and children are reunified but 711 kids of 2,551 were “ineligible.”

DHS didn’t commit to reuniting any of that group in US.
I’m out of court.

Judge said next step must be finding 431 “missing parents” already deported and 52 released into the US.

He‘ll soon issue an order on that and a ruling on potential 7-day stay on deportations for 1,000 (!) reunited families with executable removal orders.
The @ACLU also said in court the judge should block deportations of 120 parents who may have mistakenly waived reunification, calling it "torturous to have a parent thinking" they gave away their child in error.

The latest, with @JuliaEAinsley. nbcnews.com/politics/immig…
Read 4 tweets
Jul 26, 2018
BREAKING: Trump administration releases new numbers on day of court ordered deadline to reunite 2,551 migrant kids separated from parents at border.

They say 711 children STILL separated, *not eligible* for reunification.

Won't say whether they intend to try to reunite them.
Last month we all asked “where are the toddlers and girls?”

Tonight we should all be asking about 711 kids the government says are “ineligible” for reunification.

Deadline has passed.

After taken them, will Trump and company even *try* to reunite them all?

We just don’t know.
To be super clear: just over half of separated kids have been reunited by the deadline to reunite them all.

The administration is declaring victory, saying zero eligible are left in ICE custody.

That ignores 711 other kids.

Latest, with @JuliaEAinsley. nbcnews.com/politics/immig…
Read 4 tweets
Jul 19, 2018
Expecting update today from Trump administration on status of family reunifications.

Waiting on new numbers of how many kids are still separated.

Last count: 2,551.

Hoping, too, for *any* info on how many of their parents already deported.

As @maddow says, watch this space.
BREAKING: In court filing, Trump administration says 719 parents of the 2,551 still-separated children have a "final order of removal," meaning they could be immediately deported after reunification.

@LindsayTozzzz of @ImmDef just told me “that's a pretty horrifying statistic."
NEW: 7 days until migrant family reunification deadline.

Government says only 14% of kids have been reunited.

1/3 of parents could be deported right after reunification.

Latest, with @JuliaEAinsley.

We're coming up on @allinwithchris. #inners nbcnews.com/storyline/immi…
Read 4 tweets

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