John Oliver Takes on Trump’s Border Separation Policy, AT&T’s Steve King Support

John Oliver and his Last Week Tonight team had plenty of material to work with after this past week in Trump’s America, but the President’s last-ditch efforts to stoke xenophobic fears with the migrant caravan took the cake.

Trump used the caravan, which is currently months away from reaching the southern U.S. border, as a centerpiece of his closing argument heading into the midterms, calling it an “invasion” of “young men, strong men” on the country’s women.

“That is such old-timey racism, I’m genuinely amazed that image didn’t automatically turn black and white as he talked,” said Oliver. “Like Pleasantville in reverse.”

Trump might not be able to keep asylum seekers out by sending troops to the U.S.-Mexico border or ending birthright citizenship by executive order, as Oliver points out, but his administration is very much responsible for the policy of separating families at the border.

Around 2,600 babies and children were reportedly taken from their parents in the period of Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, and around 220 are still being held in ICE custody. Two weeks ago, the administration added 14 additional children to its tally of those separated from their families, as Oliver notes.

The government’s ineptitude came through even as families were reunited, as one mother learned when she received the wrong baby, after being separated from her breastfeeding five-month-old.

“To put it mildly, when it comes to how did we do this, the answer seems to be a combination of incompetently and cruelly,” said Oliver.

And why was this happening? Oliver also took down the administration and its supporters’ claims that they are forced to do so. “It’s not that they don’t want immigrants to come here because they’re criminals, it’s that they’re calling them criminals because they don’t want them to come here,” he said.

“We don’t have to do any of it. Because even though the language of war is being used, there is not a war,” Oliver later added. “And the only reason people keep talking like there is one is to give themselves permission to make the choices they want to be forced to make.”