Immigration Enforcement: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

-♪ ♪ -♪ ♪

We're gonna dive straight in with our main story tonight, which concerns immigration, the thing that brought America the likes of Gloria Estefan, from Cuba, Albert Einstein, from Germany, and Elon Musk, from... hell.

-♪ Hell. -♪ ♪

Specifically, we're gonna talk about immigration enforcement. Over the last few months, you've undoubtedly seen reports of armed, masked police raiding areas like farms, parks, and home depots. And the White House's social media has been cheering it on from posts like this meme showing DEI standing for

Deport Every Illegal to this shit.

♪ Na-na-na-na Na-na-na-na ♪

♪ Hey, hey, hey Goodbye ♪

Look, we all know this, but sometimes it is worth reiterating. This White House is full of the pettiest little bitches imaginable. And while that video is obviously disgusting, on the plus side, I now know what song I want played at Trump's funeral. I know it'll be hard to get in, but you can throw a Bluetooth speaker pretty far.

And it's not just the White House. It's hard to get in, but you can throw a Bluetooth speaker pretty far.

in Southern California's Premier Sector.

Oh, my God! HE GROANS Oh, my! It's here! as this L.A. neighborhood found out.

An abandoned cart, the only sign that Enrique, the ice cream man, had been taken into custody. Enrique had been selling ice cream in the area for almost 20 years.

He was a part of community events, and neighbors insist, not a threat.

I just don't understand it. Like, go after a criminal, don't go after the ice cream man.

Many can't believe how he was taken, they say, by unidentified men in unmarked SUVs.

Doesn't seem legal to me at all. I would think that, uh, you'd have to have paperwork and... You know, I mean, it just seems crazy.

Yeah, it does. And why the fuck are immigration agents going after ice cream sellers anyway? In that video where brave hero Darth Vader was fighting bad guys like meth, fentanyl, fake news and cocaine, I don't remember

one of those labels being, -"Guy who sells popsicles." -$POPSICLES

-$POPSICLES

But that woman saying, -"Hey, this doesn't feel legal," raises a question that a lot of people are asking right now. So given that, tonight, let's talk about immigration enforcement and try and answer a few things. What the fuck is happening right now? Who are the people in masks grabbing our neighbors off the streets? And what are the actual rules here?

And let's start with what's happening, because as we've discussed before, immigration authorities have been given pretty clear marching orders by this fucking guy.

We are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day. We can't take the risk of letting these Biden illegals roam around freely so the next American daughter can get raped, the next American kid can get murdered, the next American family can get splintered and torn apart by people that came into this country unchecked, uncontrolled, unvetted, uninvited by the American people.

Now, that absolute fire hose of xenophobic bullshit would be hard to hear from anyone, let alone Stephen Miller, who looks like what would happen if Caillou smoked two packs a day for a thousand years. He looks like a Funko Pop of Lex Luthor, except his eyes are somehow more lifeless.

Now, that 3,000 arrests a day number is part of the administration's larger goal of deporting a million immigrants in one year, which, it's worth noting, would be more than double the previous record of 400,000 when Obama was president, which was already very high.

But notably, they don't seem to be getting near their target numbers. They're apparently at just over 280,000 deportations. So getting to a million in just six months seems very unlikely. And they have backed themselves into this corner.

Because promising to deport a million criminal migrants is one thing, but once you're in charge, you then have to find that many of them, which is going to be hard if they don't exist in the numbers that you're claiming, which they don't.

It's like promising to apprehend 10,000 Fred Dursts a day. There just aren't that many out there, so either you have to admit that your target number was bullshit in the first place, or you have to drastically widen your definition of what a Fred Durst is...

-...until you're eventually arresting any Gen Xer wearing a hat. But instead of conceding their numbers were inflated, the administration's trying to drive up arrests at all costs. Not only has Miller told ICE agents to target Home Depots and 7-Elevens, he's giving them a lot of extra help. ICE has rapidly deputized a record number of local police

to function as deportation agents. They've pulled in Border Patrol as well, as well as the National Guard, at least 25% of the DEA, up to 80% of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and even members of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

And this cross-agency collaboration is why, at the site of a raid like this one, at a nightclub in Colorado, you can see personnel wearing gear with logos for the DEA, FBI, postal inspectors, FBI again, ISIS enforcement and removal operations,

and the IRS. And for what it's worth, I can't imagine

a ton of hardened criminals. seven-zero percent of those we arrest are criminals.

The other 30 percent are national security threats. Most national security threats don't have a criminal history because they try to lay low until it's time for them to do things bad.

Okay.

Speaking things bad aside, Homan is getting a lot wrong there, because under his logic, I guess anyone can be a national security threat, even for instance, your local ice cream man. Sure, the worst thing he's ever done was maybe give someone

one of those SpongeBob popsicles a la Salvador Dali, but don't be fooled, according to this decaying corpse of a baseball umpire, he's probably just lying low till it's time for him to do things bad. But also, Homan's numbers there are nowhere near ICE's own data, because it turns out only around 40 percent of those arrested by ICE had any criminal convictions,

which can include things like traffic infractions, and just seven percent were convicted of any sort of violent crime. In fact, as of the end of June, people with only civil immigration violations, no criminal charges or convictions,

made up the largest percentage of ICE arrests nationwide. And maybe the clearest sign that this is more about pushing up numbers than catching violent criminals on the run is that one of the key places they're now fishing for arrests is immigration court, when people show up for their hearings.

We captured the moment two men went from migrants... We do not purge interveners.

...to detainees.

It happened last week at Dallas Immigration Court when nearly a dozen people showed up to have their asylum cases heard. Their cases were dismissed by the judge and when they walked out of the courtroom, plain clothes federal agents were waiting to take them into custody. ICE is asking immigration judges across the country to dismiss the court cases of certain migrants so the agency can arrest them once their hearings end and place them in a fast to get immigration judges across the country to dismiss the court cases of certain migrants

known as expedited removal.

...says in Spanish, it's a trap. the government can move to put you through expedited removal, meaning you can be deported without any hearing at all. So, administration attorneys are asking for cases to be dismissed, and immigration judges, all of whom work for the DOJ,

have been told to grant those requests. It is the laziest possible way to juice up your numbers, because you're targeting people who are going through the system the right way and turning them into people that you can immediately arrest and deport.

Trump is also working to end programs that give temporary legal protection to certain immigrants from countries like Afghanistan, Haiti, and Venezuela. And by September, it's estimated these changes will cause nearly a million people who've been vetted

and given permission to live and work here to lose those protections and become at risk for deportation. But obviously, the most visible aspect of this surge in enforcement has been those raids that you've seen on TV. A term, by the way, that Tom Homan does not care for.

Well, I don't like the term raid because when we go out, there's a targeted enforcement operation. We know who we're looking for, and we have a few operations, uh, operational sheets at every arrest. You say, here's where I'm gonna go arrest, here's where I think I'm gonna find him,

here's his immigration history, here's his criminal history. We're not going out on the streets looking for people different than us.

We're targeting enforcement operations. Oh, that's reassuring. I'm glad that Hung was not just people different from him, because that'd be bad news for anyone who doesn't sound like John C. Reilly being actively drowned.

-♪ ♪ -♪ ♪

Unfortunately, his claim there that ICE is engaged in strictly targeted enforcement is at odds with internal emails showing immigration officials have been urged to turn the creative knob up to 11 when it comes to enforcement, and that if it involves handcuffs on wrists, it's probably worth pursuing, which in another context, would obviously be very hot, but really isn't here.

One tactic suggested is interviewing and potentially arresting what are called collaterals. Basically, people just encountered while looking for someone else. That is something that this local station witnessed firsthand when it did a ride-along with ICE.

These ICE agents were looking for an MS-13 gang member, but spotted this man meeting up with a painting crew

on his way to a work site.

This guy's been... He's been eyeballing since he pulled up, so... I was just trying to figure out what's going on with him.

He was arrested, also without a prior criminal record, and now sits in a holding facility in New Orleans.

Yeah, that is absurd for many reasons, without a prior criminal record, and now sits in a holding facility in New Orleans.

But the scary thing is, it doesn't have to be. than you might think.

which are issued by judges.

but they don't have to tell you that. and as Holman will tell you,

they don't need much justification for that. The agents are trained.

it's reasonable suspicion.

articulable is objectively very funny. -�.reasonable suspicion is a low bar. -...reasonable suspicion is a low bar. I have reasonable suspicion to believe that Tom Holman was doing that interview on about 12 Tylenol PMs, but that is different from me having proof, isn't it? And I should note, the administration's currently fighting a court's ban on them stopping people based solely on their ethnicity,

language, occupation, or presence at a particular location.

that sure feel like they're breaking the law,

often aren't.

So they can do it. But, why are they? arguing early last month there'd been a 690% increase which does sound alarming. Although, you should know first,

From videotaping to Molotov cocktail.

in a courthouse as ICE agents tried to detain him,

including them.

Especially in states with stand your ground laws. somebody's gonna get shot or killed,

or in some cases, even arrested by federal agents.

What's your name?

He says the agent asked him what city and hospital he was born in I said, I don't know. I said, I don't know and because I didn't know he threw me to the gate and he twisted my arm

This was the moment Border Patrol and Florida Highway Patrol officers detained a US citizen while conducting immigration enforcement

I got rights to talk Okay, that is all obviously terrible I'm trying my best, bro. You got no right, Pierre. I do. You're being illegal, brother. Get up.

at least until Stephen Miller starts an OnlyFans.

And if you want to see this whole story in one place, just look at this incident in L.A.

Man, no les habra!

You are your... in serious, bro?

Pope Garcia was capturing a raid on camera when he suddenly became the target as well.

Get him down! Get him down!

Get him down! the 37 year old US citizen tackled and taken into custody. You want to go to jail? Fine, you got it.

He says he was first taken to a

holding area at Dodger Stadium where he heard the agents boasting about how many people they had grabbed.

Like how many bodies do you guys catch today and one of them said 31 and they started like yay like there was a good day today and they were like high fiving each, it was a good day today, and they were like high-fiving each other.

He says the officers also debated

about what they could charge him with.

At first, it was assault of a federal agent, but only later, the narrative started switching because the video was out.

Yeah. He's actually seeking damages over that incident, and I should say, we contacted DHS, and they maintain he assaulted and verbally harassed a border patrol agent, only one of which is even a crime, and neither of which they've charged him with. Also, while DHS ignored most of our questions,

when we asked about that Darth Vader video, they said, not to spoil the plot, but as any Star Wars fan knows, Darth Vader is also Anakin Skywalker. I don't think DHS needs to regale the American public on the heroism of Skywalker they know,

which is just an incredible, deeply shitty response. I'd honestly love to know their disingenuous takes on other movie villains. Actually, if you think about it, Thanos was the real hero of the Avengers movies, because as any Marvel fan knows,

Thanos used to be a baby, and babies aren't evil. -♪ ♪ -♪ And all of this gets even more worrying when you remember that Trump's big, beautiful bill contained a massive surge of funding for immigration enforcement. Roughly $170 billion over the next few years. Some of which is being set aside

to fund the hiring of 10,000 more ICE agents. And for what it's worth, massive, rapid hiring sprees never tend to work out well. As we mentioned before, when Border Patrol surged hiring under Bush, they struggled to hit their numbers and wound up hiring cartel members

and an actual serial killer. And it's not a great sign for who ICE is appealing to, that they're currently posting gross recruitment ads like this fake minivan ad tagged, think about how many criminal illegal aliens you could fit in this bad boy.

And they seem more than a little bit desperate already, as they've removed age limits for hiring agents. And this week, they shared this video starring their newest recruit.

Hey, everybody, Dean Cain here. And for those who don't know, I am a sworn law enforcement officer, as well as being a filmmaker. I felt it was important to join with our first responders to help secure the safety of all Americans, not just talk about it, so I joined up.

You know, there's an old saying in Hollywood, if all you can get is Dean Cain, you are fucked. Now, I'm not saying that ICE isn't finding people, I'm just saying, when you are reduced to pinning a badge on the 59-year-old star of the dog who saved Christmas, the dog who saved Christmas vacation,

the dog who saved the holidays, the dog who saved Halloween, the dog who saved Easter, and the dog who saved summer, maybe you are in trouble. Although, on the plus side, no need for that guy to wear a mask because the chances of anyone recognizing him are fucking zero.

--AUDIENCE LAUGHS, APPLAUDS --So, so what can we do here? Well, as powerless as this can feel, as individuals, there are still actions you can take. Experts say if you personally witness an ICE arrest and are able to safely record the interaction, you should do so.

You've seen what a difference that can make tonight. For more guidance on how to do this, and what to do with your recording, go to this address. And if you're approached by an immigration enforcement while out in public, whether or not you're a citizen,

attorneys told us the only things you should say to them are, am I free to leave and I want to speak to a lawyer? That's it. You have the right to remain silent. And I recognize that in some cases, you may be unable to help yourself from saying, didn't you used to be Superman? I thought you died. I can't believe I'm meeting a filmmaker. But that really is it.

For more specific information about your rights, which may be slightly different depending on where you are, you can visit this address. And while I know this is all very bleak, it's worth remembering that supporting immigrants is actually the majority stance in this country.

And people witnessing the brutal reality of these raids has had an impact. Trump's approval on immigration has dropped sharply in the last few months, with 55 percent now disapproving of what he's doing. Meanwhile, support for Pathway 2 citizenship

for long-term undocumented immigrants has climbed to nearly 80 percent. Look, don't get me wrong, we are still in a very grim moment. But the right-wing narrative is that most people are rabid to punish anyone trying to become New Americans.

But that is just not true. Nor are there bullshit claims about who's being targeted and arrested. And I'm not saying that everything ICE is doing right now is illegal. What I'm saying is a whole bunch of it

feels like it really should be. And we need to change that at our earliest opportunity. Because the fact is, despite this administration's claims, the majority of people they are sweeping up and even U.S. citizens. one thing, the way they seem to view themselves

one thing, the way they seem to view themselves

is sadly increasingly spot on, and that is...