'Late Show' host Stephen Colbert faces backlash for 'obscene' attack on ICE agents

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Stephen Colbert suggests ICE agents are worse than Nazis because they were 'willing to show their faces'

Late-night host Stephen Colbert said during his show Monday that comparing ICE agents to Nazis was unfair because Nazis were willing to show their faces.

Late-night host Stephen Colbert is facing backlash over a remark he made about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, suggesting they were worse than Nazis because Nazis were willing to show their faces.

Colbert made the comment during his show Monday and played a clip of Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino saying during a CNN interview that people were "trying to portray Border Patrol agents and ICE agents as Gestapo, Nazi and many other words."

Colbert then said, "Yes, do not compare ICE or Border Patrol agents to the Nazis. That's an unfair comparison. The Nazis were willing to show their faces."

The remark was met with roaring applause from Colbert's audience. Critics called out the comment on X in the days that followed.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert during the Dec. 10, 2025, show. (Scott Kowalchyk/CBS Broadcasting Inc.  )

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"What happened in Minnesota is horrible. But comparing ICE to NAZIS is a vile ridiculous cheap joke," actor Michael Rapaport wrote on X. "What’s more offensive, Colbert? Or the crowd laughing?"

Sohrab Ahmari called it "obscene," "ahistorical" and "illiterate."

Radio host Buck Sexton said in reaction to Colbert that a large percentage of ICE agents are U.S. military veterans.

Newsweek opinion contributor Joel Petlin said he was old enough to remember when late-night television was funny. 

He added, "All of them knew the difference between the agents who enforce US immigration law and the Nazis who exterminated six million Jews. Shame on @StephenAtHome for minimizing the Holocaust for a cheap laugh line."

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"Five for Fighting" singer John Ondrasik called the remark "evil" in a post on X. 

"An eternal coward and an American disgrace," he added. 

Human Rights lawyer Anne Herzberg, who works for NGO Montior, wrote on x, "So according to @colbertlateshow, ICE are worse than the Nazis? To Stephen Colbert and his snarky self-righteous writers: This is not humor. This is yet another act of whitewashing the worst act of mass extermination in human history and normalizing antisemitism."

Marc Thiessen, a Washington Post columnist, said "Good riddance" to Colbert, as his show is set to end in May.

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Liberals have been comparing ICE's presence and deportation efforts in Minnesota to Nazi Germany. Some have also ramped up threats directed at ICE agents.

Gov. Tim Walz likened federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota to the Holocaust and "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank after the second fatal shooting this month involving federal officers in Minneapolis.

"We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside. Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank," Walz said, referring to the German Jewish teenager who documented her life in hiding during the Nazi persecution in World War II.

"Somebody is going to write that children's story about Minnesota, and there's one person who can end this now," he said, referring to President Donald Trump. 

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks to reporters after he announced he would not seek re-election, at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn., Jan. 5, 2026.  (Tim Evans/Reuters)

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The U.S. Holocaust Museum rebuked Walz's remarks. 

"Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish," the U.S. Holocaust Museum posted on X on Monday. 

"Leaders making false equivalencies to her experience for political purposes is never acceptable. Despite tensions in Minneapolis, exploiting the Holocaust is deeply offensive, especially as antisemitism surges."

A representative of "The Late Show" didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.