NBC’s Soboroff: Mass Deportation Signs at RNC ‘Disturbing,’ ‘Unity Sort of Went out the Window’ 

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” NBC News Political and National Correspondent Jacob Soboroff stated that it “was disturbing” to see people at the RNC holding signs advocating for mass deportations and “the idea that these divisive and polarizing figures and issues from the first President Trump term were not going to be front and center after the horrific assassination attempt just was not the reality on the ground here and in the arena last night.”

Soboroff stated, “[U]nity sort of went out the window, and I think no issue better encapsulates a shift away from a unifying tone than the way that immigration was talked about last night. I can give you many examples, but maybe first and most startling, but not surprising, is the fact that the campaign itself, the RNC, handed out signs to support the party platform saying, ‘Mass [Deportation] Now.’ And there was something about being…in the audience and seeing thousands of people hold these signs that was disturbing, that was troubling, quite frankly.”

He continued, “It’s part of…the policy platform here at the RNC to create the largest deportation effort in American history. It calls back to the Bracero program in the 1950s that brought over Mexican guest workers and then the Eisenhower administration in 1954 deported a million Mexicans, and some Mexican Americans actually, in an effort that, at the time, was the largest ever in American history. Donald Trump wants to go far beyond that. There are well over 10 million, 11 million, even more by some estimations, undocumented people living in this country, that have been here for many, many years. And the idea that they were celebrating this, not just with these placards and these signs, but Tom Homan was a featured speaker last night. And to remind everybody, Tom Homan was the acting ICE Director, first under the Obama administration, but then, under the Trump administration. During the Obama administration, he pitched and proposed a family separation policy and it was rejected out of hand by then-Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson. Of course, with Stephen Miller in power and other Trump administration officials, that proposal was ultimately adopted. … Stephen Miller was up on the stage walking around with Donald Trump yesterday during the walk-through for his speech that he will give tonight. So, the idea that these divisive and polarizing figures and issues from the first President Trump term were not going to be front and center after the horrific assassination attempt just was not the reality on the ground here and in the arena last night.”

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