About this Video

• Video Title: Trump & Deportations: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
• Channel: LastWeekTonight
• Speakers: John Oliver, Terry Moran
• Duration: 00:25:55

Introduction

This Last Week Tonight episode focuses on the Trump administration's immigration policies, particularly deportations. Oliver critiques the administration's actions, highlighting instances of seemingly arbitrary and unjust deportations, the disregard for legal processes, and the use of misleading or fabricated information.

Key Takeaways

• Aggressive Deportation Tactics: The Trump administration significantly increased the speed and scale of deportations compared to its first term, employing various tactics to expedite the process, sometimes using obscure legal loopholes.
• Disregard for Due Process: Numerous examples are given of deportations occurring without due process, including the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported due to an administrative error despite having a court order protecting him. The episode also highlights the use of the Alien Enemies Act to justify deportations without hearings.
• Weak and Fabricated Evidence: The administration's justifications for deportations often relied on weak or fabricated evidence, such as misinterpretations of tattoos and social media posts. The episode uses the case of Andry Hernandez Romero as a prime example of this.
• "Worst-First" Strategy Ineffective: While the administration claimed to prioritize deporting individuals with criminal histories, evidence suggests this strategy was unsustainable and quickly abandoned in favor of broader, less targeted sweeps.
• Creation of New Criminals: The administration's use of "registration of aliens" is highlighted as a tactic to create new criminal charges, allowing them to deport those who fail to register or carry proof of registration.

The "laughably absurd" mistake was that ICE agents conducted a Zero Dark Thirty-style raid on the parents' home of a man who had posted flyers warning about ICE overreach, but the man they were looking for had already "moved to New York last month." The acting ICE director, who had previously compared ICE to Amazon Prime, was present at the raid, yet the target was absent. This inefficiency was contrasted to Amazon's more precise operations.