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John Oliver Returns, Uses Last Week Tonight Premiere to Call for Abolishing ICE

The main segment argued that the post‑9/11 Homeland Security design enabled systemic failures at ICE, culminating in a demand to scrap the agency.

Overview

  • After a three‑month break, the Season 13 opener began with a rapid, five‑minute roundup of recent headlines, from new Epstein files and surging measles cases to Interior’s coal mascot, a stolen walrus artifact, and Miss Norway’s salmon dress.
  • Most of the episode examined ICE’s enforcement tactics and the Department of Homeland Security’s post‑9/11 structure, with Oliver citing Minneapolis incidents and a 9/11 Commission critique of chaotic oversight.
  • Oliver closed the segment with, “We need to get rid of ICE, period,” contending that immigration laws were enforced by other agencies before 2003.
  • He spotlighted Winter Olympics drama, noting biathlete Sturla Holm Lægreid’s public cheating admission and France’s Julia Simon competing and winning gold despite a recent suspended jail sentence for credit card theft.
  • He mocked uncertainty over a potential Warner Bros. Discovery sale, joked he doesn’t know his next “business daddy,” issued an on‑air apology to Netflix with a Stranger Things color‑grading jab, and needled the Riyadh Comedy Festival.