any errol morris film you should see. but this one is really important.ughout the country. aired at big film festivals like venice and telluride. but tonight it is here on msnbc. there's a couple of things i think folks should keep in mind in terms of this current moment. when you watch separated tonight. it will start a few minutes from now. but i think the first thing to keep in mind, this is not a done store. msnbc viewers are probably familiar with the basic fact. in the trump administration in 2017, 2018. they took somewhere between 4500 and 5,000 kids away from their parents before a court ordered them to stop doing it. and one of the heros of the film that you will see when we show the film tonight, one of the heros brought the class action lawsuit that shut down the policy. we spoke with him this week. he stressed to us though the policy was stopped by the court ins the first trump term, the effect of what the policy did has not been fixed. there are still families the government never managed to put back together after u.s. government officials f

i was lucky enough to have jacob and erroll morris join me on this program to see what inspired them to make this program and the urgency for recording for postert this was. >> this represents something different and something new, and it's important to remember and acknowledge that fact. when you're separating a 2-month-old nursing infant from his mother, that's a big, big difference. you can hear the head of the department of homeland security, the secretary, tell us that we're not doing anything unusual, we're just following -- >> the law. >> -- the law. and why didn't they do this during the obama administration? obama deported lots and lots and lots of people. why didn't they do this during the obama administration? because they discussed it and decided it was immoral. >> discussed it and decided it was immoral. that's what stops obama and doesn't stop trump. that's the dividing line. it's possible that it incentivized them. so what happens now? joining us to help answer that question, none other than jacob soboroff. the author of "separated, inside an american tragedy" the book

and the voice you heard interviewing jacob is filmmaker errol morris. he and jacob teamed up to turn jacob's searing body of reporting on the family separation crisis into a new film called separated. i was lucky enough to have jacob and errol mars join me on this program to discuss what inspired them to make this film and the urgency of recording for posterity how unprecedented trump's family separation policy was. >> this represents something different and something new, and it is important to remember and acknowledge that fact. when you are separating a two- month-old nursing infant from his mother, that is a big, big difference. you can hear the head of the department of homeland security, the secretary tell us that we are not doing anything unusual. we are just following the law. and why didn't they do this during the obama administration? obama deported lots and lots of people. why didn't they do this during the obama administration? because they discussed it and decided it was a moral. >> they discussed it and decided it was immoral. that is what

a new film, separated from oscar winning film maker, errol morris, based on the book, separated by nbc soberof, the family separation and immigration policies, and the on going years long fight to reunite children. >> the unaccompanied children program, which i worked in, was essentially hijacked for a purpose for which it was never intended nor authorized in law. it was a program designed to be a child protection program for children that entered the united states without parents. and it was instead used as a tool to take children from their parents. >> jacob and erol morris join me now. welcome to meet the press. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you both for being here. you're an oscar award winning film maker. why did you want to take on this project? >> it's a very important issue and perhaps the essence of our current politics, it involves immigration, the treatment of immigrants, both outside our country and within. i couldn't think of a more important issue to make a movie about. >> jacob, you have done so much reporting about this issue. what made you want to take that reporti

. >> jacob soboroff and errol morris join me now. ank you both for being here. errol, i want to start with you. you are an oscar award-winning filmmaker. why did you want to take on this project? >> it's a very important issue and perhaps at the essence of our current politics. it involves immigration, the treatment of immigrants both outside our country and within. i couldn't think of a more important issue to make a movie about. >> jacob, you have done so much reporting about this issue, what made you want to take that reporting and turn it into a book and now this documentary? >> i think, kristen, when we all cover this together at the time in the summer of 2018 what a republican-appointed judge called one of the most shameful chapters in the history of the country what physicians for for human rights said and the academy of pediatrics called sanctioned child abuse. none of us could understand how the government could do something so cruel. cruelty is a point for the atlantic, and so i still have questions and i wrote the book. the

. >> separated, oscar winning errol morris and

, this coming saturday night at 9:00 p.m eastern, msnbc will premiere the new documentary from errol morris. this is the film separated telling the inside story of the forest child separation policy. it will premiere here saturday night at 9:00 eastern. right before it airs, i will be joining my colleague. i hope you'll join us ahead of the film premiere. >>> that doesn't and now it is time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. >> i am so glad you talked about john tower in the presidents that exists in the senate confirmation process. i remember when his confirmation was defeated but i didn't know, it was years before i went into government, that was the very first time that a president's nominee for the cabinet was defeated in the confirmation process. the very first time. we had had judges defeated but never a cabinet member. it was an astonishing outcome. will >> for a newly elected president. no matter how much a president wins by, they all say the mandate they earn is getting his nominees through well that was the first time when the defendant said no, not this one. the parallels

, this coming saturday night at 9:00 p.m eastern, msnbc will premiere the new documentary from errol morris

eastern saturday night, msnbc will premier the new documentary from the legendary filmmaker errol morris and our nbc colleague, the film "separated" that tells the inside story of the forced child separation policy during the first trump administration. it's going to premier here on msnbc saturday night 9:00 eastern. right before it airs 8:00 eastern saturday night i'll be joining my colleague on his show 7:00 eastern, excuse me, hope you'll join us for that ahead of the film premier at 9:00. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. good evening. >> i'm so glad you talked about john tower and the precedence that exists in the senate confirmation process. i remember when his confirmation was defeated, but what i didn't know -- i'm not even sure i knew this at the time, years before i went into government -- is that was the very first time that a president's nominee for the cabinet was defeated in the confirmation process, the very first time. we'd had judges defeated, but never a cabinet member. it was just an astonishing outcome. >> for a newly elected president, exactl

eastern saturday night, msnbc will premier the new documentary from the legendary filmmaker errol morristed" that tells the inside story of the forced child separation policy during th

i wrote the book, the oscar- winning filmmaker errol morris read the book, and about four years ago hehe book into a film and we never could have possibly imagined we didn't know trump is going to run again much less the president-elect, but here we are on the verge of mass deportations which is family separation by another name. the film is a look back and roadmap for what this incoming administration may well do again. >> so then jacob, what do you make of the idea that mass deportations, but as i said in the intro, they are also looking at sending people to countries that aren't their home countries where they might not know the culture or even the language. is that something that trump 1.0 did? >> i think immigration enforcement has done that, and that's what you will see in the film tonight, trump was able to separate these families because of bipartisan deterrence-based immigration policy that has existed in this country for the better part of a generation. and i went to haiti and watched haitians who were expelled from under that bridge in del rio, texas, sent back to a country

>> what errol morris, who took the book that i did turned it into this film that will premiere on saturdayto these characters and one the people that you meet is, as you mentioned, scott lloyd. he was the political appointee in charge of the office of refugee resettlement. becomes the boss of all of the career civil servants who have spent a lifetime looking out for the best interests of children and what you see in the movie is that people like scott lloyd were contacted or contacting steen miller in the white house and it is very unusual to have nonsenate confirmed political appointees in direct communication with the white house. but nevertheless, as he pointed out in "separated" that is what was going on in the first trump term. and you have this influence who want to carry out the policies and they're directing in essence career officials what to do even though the career officials are the ones with the lifetime of not only service but expertise and schooling and management lessons and literally accountability here who know what they're doing is the most basic way to put it and they'r

directed by the legendary documentarian errol morris, the film is based on a book of the same name byoroff, who is also one of the film's executive producers. one of the things that so often gets lost in conversations about trump's family separation policy, is that harm to children was the point. it was, in fact one of the civil servants who you speak with in the film says that it was meant to terrify parents from making that trek from those northern triangle countries to the u.s. jacob: based on the facts that we know, which in this film are firsthand interviews with civil servants who tried to stand up and stop the policy and in fact help the policy reversal, we know what they wanted to do. they wanted to hurt kids in order to scare other families from coming to this country and scare congress into enacting more restrictive immigration laws. it's exactly the way that they drew it up and exactly what they wanted to do. geoff: one of the civil servants who offers a firsthand account is jonathan white, who worked for the office of refugee resettlement. >> the unaccompanied children pro

when errol morris, and i set out to make this film about what a republican appointed judge called oneful expecters in the history of our country -- chapters in our country, how the government could have done something deliberately cruel, that's not an opinionated statement, that's based on fact, how it could have been hap hazardously implemented. it was child abuse according to the american academy of pediatrics. we shared these questions. we never would have known four years ago when we set out today as i was talking to you donald trump the man responsible for that policy would be on the verge of walking back into the white house today. >> in 2019, i specifically asked then president trump about his family separation policy. take a look at what he said back then. >> the zero tolerance policy was it a mistake? >> it's not a mistake. we want to have strong borders. it's not a mistake. let me explain something. children -- >> border -- thousands -- >> we had separation -- when i became president, president obama had a separation policy. i didn't have it. he had it. under the obama plan

all came together and it is all laid out right there for everybody to see and the way that only erroll morrisin this film, communicate to the american people in this visual way like you're seeing on your screen right now. by the way, with the use of emails, the use of documentary interviews with some of the key officials involved in the policy but also with narrative. a fictionalized story of a mother and son put together by the production designer of "roma" and another oscar winner involved in this production. it's really a beautiful film that he has put together. >> so, jacob, as you reflect on the making of the film, the origin as your work here, cruelty is the point, cruelty will continue to be the point apparently going forward. how do you rationalize the idea, the fact that so many people voted for donald trump to put him back in office knowing that things like this -- >> and as jonathan mentioned, tom homan, stephen miller, the same cast of characters are going back in there. my personal belief having covered this is, remember -- to me it's an inspiring story also because everyone arou

and you look at how it all came together and it is all laid out in a way that only errol morris can.documentary officials and also the narrative, a story of a mother and a son that is put together by the production designer, it is really a beautiful film he has put together. >> as you reflect on the making of the film and the origin of your work here, cruelty is the point, it will continue to be the point, apparently, going forward. how do you rationalize the idea and fact that so many people voted for donald trump to put him back in office knowing things like this. >> tom homan and stephen miller and all that same cast of characters are going back in there. my personal belief is, remember, this is an inspiring story because everyone around the world rose up and stop this from happening. the pope spoke out in the summer of 2018 and said, this is not okay. we are morally opposed to ripping children from their parents on purpose. i am all for the conventions. i saw them holding up those mass deportation science but might personal belief is, even though people support mass deportation,