NBC’s resident open borders advocate Jacob Soboroff traveled over to CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday to promote his new anti-Trump documentary Separated and claim that “deterrence doesn't work” as a border security strategy and we “need a new approach” to the issue.
Colbert wondered, “The film paints a picture of the bechilling crime perpetrated by the Trump Administration in the past and warns it could happen again in the future. Well, I assume this is being made before the second Trump Administration. What's happening right now?”
For Soboroff, enforcing immigration law is cruel and inhumane:
They’re talking about mass deportation. I reported from the floor of the Republican convention. They held up, literally held up signs saying “mass deportation now.” They have based their program off Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1954 program with a name so racist, I'm not going to say it here. I'm never going to say it. They deported not only a million Mexicans, but some Mexican-Americans as well. I heard you talking about American citizens getting caught up in the dragnet. When you talk about mass deportation, translation: mass deportation is family separation by another name. It's not ripping apart children away from their parents at the border, but it's immigration enforcement officials going into the interior and taking parents away from their children.
Later in their discussion, Colbert asked, “Why will no one actually address our immigration policy in an honest way? Why can't that happen? The last place this happened was, I'm not saying it's the right thing or wrong thing, but at least the Reagan administration had some courage and they had an amnesty policy. They provided amnesty for people and a path toward citizenship and they made Congress pass it.”
Of course, by “honest,” Colbert means “in a way I agree with” because Soboroff would answer the question in a dishonest way:
I think because deterrence has been the bipartisan policy of the United States government for the better part of a generation. Bill Clinton built the first wave of border walls knowing people would die trying to come into the country going around them. George W. Bush exponentially increased the size of the border patrol in the wake of 9/11 when they created the Department of Homeland Security.
Continuing with his history lesson, Soboroff added:
Barack Obama deported more people than any president in the history of the United States, which is why, like that, Donald Trump would separate these children almost immediately, and Joe Biden promised a departure from that system. A fair, safe, humane, and orderly system, but what they ended up doing is lean into these aggressive policies in order to continue to scare people away. They think it works, and let me tell you: deterrence doesn't work. If it works, people would stop coming to this country. People are leaving desperate circumstances all around the world for a better life in the United States of America. It's time for a new approach.
Joe Biden reversed course because his initial desire to be Not Trump made the problem worse and was one reason why Kamala Harris lost. As for Soboroff’s “new approach,” he never cared to explain what that might be. Presumably, because it would involve decreased enforcement, which definitely wouldn't work.
Here is a transcript for the January 30-taped show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
1/31/2025
12:28 AM ET
STEPHEN COLBERT: The film paints a picture of the bechilling crime perpetrated by the Trump Administration in the past and warns it could happen again in the future. Well, I assume this is being made before the second Trump Administration.
JACOB SOBOROFF: We had no idea, yeah.
COLBERT: What's happening right now?
SOBOROFF: They’re talking about mass deportation. I reported from the floor of the Republican convention. They held up, literally held up signs saying “mass deportation now.” They have based their program off Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1954 program with a name so racist, I'm not going to say it here. I'm never going to say it. They deported not only a million Mexicans, but some Mexican-Americans as well. I heard you talking about American citizens getting caught up in the dragnet. When you talk about mass deportation, translation: mass deportation is family separation by another name. It's not ripping apart children away from their parents at the border, but it’s immigration enforcement officials going into the interior and taking parents away from their children.
…
COLBERT: Why will no one actually address our immigration policy in an honest way? Why can't that happen? The last place this happened was, I'm not saying it's the right thing or wrong thing, but at least the Reagan administration had some courage and they had an amnesty policy. They provided amnesty for people and a path toward citizenship and they made Congress pass it.
SOBOROFF: They did and I think because deterrence has been the bipartisan policy of the United States government for the better part of a generation. Bill Clinton built the first wave of border walls knowing people would die trying to come into the country going around them. George W. Bush exponentially increased the size of the border patrol in the wake of 9/11 when they created the Department of Homeland Security.
Barack Obama deported more people than any president in the history of the United States, which is why, like that, Donald Trump would separate these children almost immediately, and Joe Biden promised a departure from that system. A fair, safe, and humane, and orderly system, but what they ended up doing is lean into these aggressive policies in order to continue to scare people away. They think it works, and let me tell you: deterrence doesn't work. If it works, people would stop coming to this country. People are leaving desperate circumstances all around the world for a better life in the United States of America. It's time for a new approach.
