February 01, 2017
Did you tune into "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" Monday night? Well, the TV host gave Philadelphia a special shoutout – though it wasn't under the best circumstances.
In Colbert's first show back since the inauguration on Jan. 20, he took on President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration and America's refugee program.
"You ever regret going on vacation?" Colbert said in the opening monologue. "'Take the week off,' they said. 'America will still be here when you get back,' they said. 'How much could [Trump] do in a week?'"
Of course, Colbert is talking about the executive order signed Friday that bars Syrians from entering the United States indefinitely and refugees from entering for 120 days. In addition, immigrants from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen are banned for 90 days.
More than 100 have been detained at airports across the country, including two Syrian families who were denied entry at Philadelphia International Airport on Saturday and sent to Qatar and then Damascus, though they reportedly had legal documentation.
In the many examples over the weekend, Colbert led with Philadelphia's own.
"That's like saying, 'Welcome to Trump's America, a shining city on a – psych,'" Colbert said in the monologue.
Colbert mentioned a 5-year-old Iranian boy who was reportedly detained on Saturday night and taken away from his mother at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia.
He also talked about how the incidents led to outrage across the country and demonstrations at many airports, including a large protest at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
"Do you have any idea how angry people have to be to voluntarily go to JFK?" he said. "Just walk to your destination; it's quicker."
