With the expiration of Title 42 on May 11, 2023, we thought it apt to share the Last Week Tonight with John Oliver April 30, 2023 episode “Biden and the Border” which examines President Biden’s failure to deliver on a key campaign promise to asylum seekers allowing them back on US soil to file for asylum. The British-American comedian, political commentator, and television host, appropriately notes “we’re just entering a different phase of an immigration dystopia, particularly for asylum seekers.” Mr. Oliver shines a light on the administration’s “bad policy and s*itty apps”, namely the “CBP One” app.
Read moreAsylum: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
With only a few days left until the conclusion of the 2020 election, John Oliver discusses how the Trump administration has handled asylum seekers over the past four years, noting how the administration has been in this area “truly disciplined about being truly evil.” Oliver discuss how asylum is supposed to work and how the Trump administration has subverted it. He focuses in particular on the so-called “Migrant Protection Protocols” that the administration instituted that have led to asylum seekers living in makeshift camps in dangerous conditions where migrants face kidnappings and violence and how the administration has “all but shut off the pathway for many asylum seekers to enter the country.” Oliver says: “[T]he asylum process has never been easy, but this administration has made it absolute hell.”
No One Line
John Oliver on America's Immigration Courts
HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” aired a comedic but insightful segment on the injustices and absurdities of US immigration courts. The segment covers various topics including the burdensome task that immigrants face of representing themselves in immigration court if they cannot afford a lawyer, the years-long case backlog, and what happens to asylum applicants who don't win their case. He takes especially sharp aim at the assertion that child immigrants can understand immigration law well enough to effectively represent themselves in court without a lawyer. To this end, he features clips from attorney Amy Maldonado's interviews of toddlers responding to basic biographical and immigration-related questions. To one inquiry about designating a country of removal, Lilah, who is about three or four years old, says: pizza!