As the country continues to reel with the Trump administration's horrific immigration policy that entails ripping children from their parents at the border, it's also remained dominant in the late night shows. Last week, Stephen Colbert delivered a powerful takedown of Attorney General Jeff Sessions for attempting to justify such cruelty with scripture from the Bible, but Monday night, he tried a different route. Colbert debuted a new segment called "The Devil's Advocate."
But first, Colbert caught up viewers on the latest in the Trump administration's deflection and outright denial of the policy.
"The big story continues to be the Trump administration's policy of forcibly separating immigrant children from their parents and faced with almost universal condemnation from both sides of the political aisle," Colbert said. "From religious leaders, from the U.N. Human Rights Council — Donald Trump finally took full responsibility for the policy and promised a swift end to this humanitarian disaster."
Colbert paused, looking dead on into the camera. "I'm just kidding," he said. "No, he blamed the Democrats."
"There are two things wrong with this. One, if it was a law, the Republicans are in control of everything. They can fix it," Colbert continued. "Second of all, it’s not a law, this is a policy. It’s just another scoop from your chum bucket of cruelty. Trump says he regrets having to do this, but — and this is a sentence I never thought I would utter — he justified his child prisons in the middle of a speech about his new Space Force."
Colbert showed a clip of Trump saying: "The United States will not be a migrant camp, and it will not be a refugee holding facility," in front of the National Space Council.
"No, it’ll be an all-baby reboot of 'The Shawshank Redemption,'" Colbert quipped, and the reimagined movie poster appeared on the screen.
The comedian also highlighted the absurdity of a statement made by "Fox & Friends" host Steve Doocy, who denied that the detainment centers for children resembled prisons. As he showed images from it, Doocy said, "Look, I’m from a farm community. To me, I see the chain-link fences, it’s more like a security pen to me."
"Yes, they’re not cages — they’re pens," Colbert chided. "We’re not treating these kids like zoo animals. We’re treating them like farm animals."
Then Colbert took on his alter ego, Lucifer. His voice became deeper, his skin was tinted red and horns rose from his head. "Lucifer here," he introduced himself. "You know, imprisoning children has been getting a lot of bad press recently — but the prison, is that really the worst place for kids, I mean, have you been to a Chuck E. Cheese?"
Colbert-turned-Lucifer added, "Some people refer to these facilities as cages, but on the other hoof, you see, I'm from a rural part of hell, and to me, they look more like pens, where we make Charles Manson fight Thomas Jefferson," he said, returning to Steve Doocy's reasoning. "I'm sorry, Tom. It was the slave stuff."
"And these little criminals have got it made. They learn how to flush a toilet, which is good, because the people defending this are full of crap," Colbert as Lucifer said. "By the way Jeff Sessions, see you soon."
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