John Oliver: '3-year-olds shouldn't have to defend themselves in immigration courts'

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver took on the case of undocumented children in immigration courts. Since they are not citizens, the children are not afforded legal representation. This mean children as young as 2 years old have to defend themselves. John Oliver thinks making a 2-year-old represent themselves in a legal proceeding is completely ridiculous. He said, "You can't let a 2-year-old be unsupervised in court. You can't even let a 2-year-old be unsupervised in a bouncy castle. They're going to come out covered in glitter, holding a broken beer bottle and a dead bird. How did they get them? Who knows? The point is, they can't be left alone for a second. And that bird has already been in their mouth. It just has. You have to deal with that reality." While most reasonable people would agree with Oliver, some judges believe that children are capable of defending themselves. Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jack Weil said, "I've taught immigration law literally to 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds. It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of patience. They get it. It's not the most efficient, but it can be done." Oliver responded to this claim saying, "You can't teach immigration law to a 3-year-old. You can't even explain to a child that age that Elmo isn't his best friend." To prove how ridiculous it is to have young children in courtroom settings, Oliver left viewers with a clip from his fake daytime court show called Tot Bench. Everyone on the show is a young child, with the exception of defendant, who is an adult. As you might expect, there isn't much order in this court. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver airs Sundays at 11 p.m. on HBO.