Why John Oliver Wants Americans to Rethink Immigration

Brut America

John Oliver: comedian, TV host, and immigrant. The "Last Week Tonight" star spoke with Brut about his work with the International Refugee Assistance Project — and what America gets wrong about immigration.

Transcript

00:00I have hands-on experience with the American immigration process, which is rough even for

00:07somebody like me, which is incredible, because I probably have all the advantages to navigate

00:15the US immigration system, and yet it is still incredibly difficult.

00:18There's a gigantic misconception between what you would think America's process was

00:35for refugees and what it actually is, because you would think there was one that was at

00:38least coherent, but what there is is something that is completely shattered and does not

00:44serve the people.

00:45You have to work despite the system rather than because of it, and that is where you

00:49do need a lawyer, because it's built otherwise for you to fail.

01:07My wife was in the US Army, she was a combat medic, and so she, as many people did, worked

01:16with translators and multiple translators in Iraq, struggled to make it through the

01:25system that was designed to help them come to this country, as kind of paying back the

01:31incredible work that they had done for our servicemen and women.

01:34To make a promise to someone in good faith who you've been through incredibly difficult

01:40situations with, and then to have the country slam the brakes on those visas, particularly

01:45those special immigrant visas, the CIV visas, was absolutely infuriating to watch.

02:04Any time you find yourself saying, go back where you came from, you're standing on some

02:13very spicy ground.

02:15I love it here in this country, but I do associate this country's strength with its immigrant

02:22past, present and future.

02:23So the current threats that this particular administration pose, where you get a sense

02:30that what they would really like is to have net zero immigration of any kind, that to

02:36me is just completely antithetical with the reason I think this country is so incredible.

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