NBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff may call himself a reporter, but he is indistinguishable from an activist. Soboroff’s most recent activism occurred on Thursday’s edition of Late Night with Seth Meyers, where he lamented, “Mass deportation is family separation by another name,” and omitted the fact that a recently detained man, who was pepper sprayed by federal agents, threatened them with a weed whacker.
Meyers began, “So, you were here in 2018. You wrote a book called Separated about Trump's deportation policy in his first term…how does it differ first term, second term, as far as you see it?”
Soboroff began by lamenting Trump’s immigration policies in broad terms:
I think what they're carrying out right now is exactly what Stephen Miller wanted to do during the first term. You know, they separated, deliberately, 5,500 kids from their parents, as we talked about last time we were here. And Stephen Miller wanted to take it far beyond that. He wanted to do tens of thousands of kids. And he was stopped because people came to the streets, much like they're doing today, and protested. And he had to back down. Trump had to back down. Today, it's mass deportation. But what is mass deportation? Mass deportation is family separation by another name. They're not separating children from their parents at the border. They're taking parents away from their children in the interior in a way that is orders of magnitude, actually, greater than what they did last time because of the amount of people that it affects.
He then got specific, “And it's not—it isn't—you know, the point I really want to make is it's not what they said it's going to be, which is the worst of the worst. It's a landscaper with three sons who are Marines, Narciso Barranco. It is day laborers at Home Depot. It's people in the strawberry fields of Oxnard who are running through the fields with Black Hawk choppers circling them overhead. It’s everyday working people who live in our communities.”
Meyers wanted more, “You mentioned this father, three sons in the Marines, and we've seen all these videos, and you've done a great job of posting them, where we watch, you know, sort of people getting absconded into, you know, ICE vehicles. In your reporting, what happens after that?”
Soboroff obliged, claiming:
The conditions are exactly as you would imagine. So, Mr. Barranco told his son, Alejandro, who I talked to on Nicole Wallace's show, on Deadline: White House, the other day, that he has been sitting in a cell in downtown Los Angeles with 70 other guys. Hasn't showered, hasn't changed his clothes. His eyes still hurt from the pepper spray they sprayed in his eyeballs. The blood is still on his clothes. And he doesn't know when or if he's going to get out. It's the conditions that we saw—by the way, and in all fairness, during Democratic and Republican administrations—inside these types of facilities. And that's part of the problem is that there hasn't been some kind of wholesale departure from the system, and it does feel like a little bit of déjà vu.
It’s odd that Soboroff would willingly choose to mention that Deadline segment because he posted the segment on X, leading the CBP to quote-tweet, “Show the full story. If you swing a WEED WACKER at federal agents, run through traffic, and refuse to comply - there WILL be consequences.”
Show the full story. If you swing a WEED WACKER at federal agents, run through traffic, and refuse to comply - there WILL be consequences. https://t.co/RgBCxzUB1e pic.twitter.com/apLGP5cbQQ
— CBP (@CBP) June 24, 2025
Here is a transcript for the June 26-taped show:
NBC Late Night with Seth Meyes
6/27/2025
1:05 AM ET
SETH MEYERS: So, you were here in 2018. You wrote a book called Separated—
JACOB SOBOROFF: Yup.
MEYERS: —about Trump's deportation policy in his first term. And now, obviously, you're covering his second term. How do you, having been so close to it, and Separated, by the way, for those who are interested, a wonderful documentary directed by Errol Morris, who's one of the best in the business. But, how does it differ first term, second term, as far as you see it?
SOBOROFF: I think what they're carrying out right now is exactly what Stephen Miller wanted to do during the first term. You know, they separated, deliberately, 5,500 kids from their parents, as we talked about last time we were here. And Stephen Miller wanted to take it far beyond that. He wanted to do tens of thousands of kids. And he was stopped because people came to the streets, much like they're doing today, and protested. And he had to back down. Trump had to back down. Today, it's mass deportation. But what is mass deportation? Mass deportation is family separation by another name. They're not separating children from their parents at the border. They're taking parents away from their children in the interior in a way that is orders of magnitude, actually, greater than what they did last time because of the amount of people that it affects. And it's not — it isn't — you know, the point I really want to make is it's not what they said it's going to be, which is the worst of the worst. It's a landscaper with three sons who are Marines, Narciso Barranco. It is day laborers at Home Depot. It's people in the strawberry fields of Oxnard who are running through the fields with Black Hawk choppers circling them overhead. It’s everyday working people who live in our communities.
MEYERS: You mentioned this father, three sons in the Marines, and we've seen all these videos, and you've done a great job of posting them, where we watch, you know, sort of people getting absconded into, you know, ICE vehicles. In your reporting, what happens after that?
SOBOROFF: The conditions are exactly as you would imagine. So, Mr. Barranco told his son, Alejandro, who I talked to on Nicole Wallace's show, on Deadline: White House, the other day, that he has been sitting in a cell in downtown Los Angeles with 70 other guys. Hasn't showered, hasn't changed his clothes. His eyes still hurt from the pepper spray they sprayed in his eyeballs. The blood is still on his clothes. And he doesn't know when or if he's going to get out. It's the conditions that we saw — by the way, and in all fairness, during Democratic and Republican administrations—inside these types of facilities. And that's part of the problem is that there hasn't been some kind of wholesale departure from the system, and it does feel like a little bit of déjà vu.
