As can be seen in the documentary Separated, MSNBC's Jacob Soboroff was told by then-Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in May 2018 that families crossing the border illegally would be separated from their children.
Separated documentary, shown on MSNBC
December 7, 2024
9:06 p.m. Eastern
JACOB SOBOROFF: The first exposure I ever had to what became family separation was, I was in a Colorado ballroom covering the 2016 campaign, and a guy that was up there speaking on behalf of Donald Trump was screaming. And I just said, "Who is this f**king guy?" Turns out it was Stephen Miller."
(...)
10:04 p.m. Eastern
(dated May 2018)
SOBOROFF: The Dateline border hour was ordered because it was what Trump was talking about. After finishing the story, Katie Waldman -- probably the juniormost press deputy for Kirstjen Nielsen -- she later became Katie Miller -- Katie invites us to do a sit-down with the Secretary.
(...)
What didn't know was that in the days before I sat down with Kirstjen Nielsen, Donald Trump absolutely berated her that she wasn't moving fast enough on these aggressive deterrence policies, nor that she signed this decision memo to make family separations a Department of Homeland Security policy.
ERROL MORRIS: So, at that point, the memo is signed. Her name is on the memo.
(memo dated May 4, 2018, is shown on screen)
SOBOROFF: Yup. She signed it even though she got a pair of contradictory memos because attached to the, what's know as the "decision memo," was also a memo that warned her it could violate the Constitution.
MORRIS: So where does this meeting occur?
SOBOROFF: At the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C.
(...)
SOBOROFF: While we were out there, the Attorney General announced this new policy. Anybody who crosses into the United States illegally is going to be prosecuted, and children are going to be separated from their family members. With so many people coming into the United States looking to seek asylum, is that the right strategy?
KIRSTJEN NIELSEN, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: So, to be clear -- let's be clear about that, we will enforce the law. We are not exempting any class. So if you're part of a family and you break the law, you will be incarcerated just as adults are every day in this country in every community. When they break the law, they're separated from their family. It's no different.
1. ice removals 2008 to 2015:
https://www.ice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report/2016/fy2015removalStats.pdf
2. ice removals from 2011 to 2019:
https://www.ice.gov/remove/statistics
3. ice removals from 2021 to 2024:
https://www.ice.gov/statistics
4. border apprehensions 2022 to 2024:
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters
5. border apprehensions 2014 to 2019:
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration/fy-2019
6. border apprehensions 2014 to 2021:
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration-YTDNovember
7. border apprehensions 2022 to 2025:
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters
8. house report on record border crossings:
9. expedited removes dropped in 2021:
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/expedited-removal
10. biden parole makes it possible to shift illegal alien stats to nationwide encounters stats
11. nearly half of aliens apprehended at border are removed
12. title 42 expulsions are counted separately -- turned back by cbp
13, national encounters cbp stats incl inadmissibles, title 42 expulsions, date to appear
14. expedited removals graph by year
15. thru polfact, deportations carried out by cbp and ice
16. *** thru polfact, number of people released under trump and under biden
17. fewer ice removals under biden because agents deputized to carry out title 42 expulsions at border
18. apprehensions vs encounters since biden
19. apprehensions by month since 2000
