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Since October, more than 47,000 unaccompanied young immigrants have been detained along the U.S. border with Mexico, most of them coming from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. There are

some probable reasons for this unprecedented wave of immigrant kids, Stephen Colbert explained on Wednesday night's Colbert Report — rumors that the U.S. is handing out immigration

permission slips and rampant gang violence at home, for example.

But this isn't Frontline or 60 Minutes, so Colbert also looked at the more entertaining, admittedly conspiratorial explanations coming from some conservatives. Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas)

thinks it might be an Obama plot, and Tucker Carlson provides a motive. "So, just to recap," Colbert said: "The president is kidnapping thousands of Central American children to take them to

the U.S. to swell voter rolls and singlehandedly destroy the flour tortilla industry." If you actually want to learn about the problem and policies, watch until the end, when Colbert is

joined by NPR southwest correspondent John Burnett. --Peter Weber

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career

began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.