"What's different from what was going on in this building during the Obama administration is the systematic separation of children from their parents under the 'zero tolerance' policy," Soboroff explained.

The scene is at the center of "Separated," a damning new documentary by Errol Morris based on Soboroff's memoir of the same name. The news correspondent recalls feeling used by the Donald Trump administration. As one of a handful of reporters granted access to the Brownsville warehouse and similar facilities in nearby McAllen, Soboroff realized that the atrocity was the point. The administration wasn't hiding the 10-year-olds wrapped in aluminum, sleeping on concrete floors and sticking their small fingers into gaps in the chain-link fence. The officials wanted those scenes to get out in order to scare people away from crossing the border.