Saturday Night Live‘s cold open featured Pete Davidson returning as “Border Czar” Tom Homan with a blunt message to ICE unit commanders following the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis.
On Saturday, January 31, Davidson — who left SNL in 2022 after Season 47 — attempted to remind ICE agents of the actual goal behind their deployment in Minnesota and other U.S. states. The skit marked a break from James Austin Johnson playing President Donald Trump following backlash over “tone deaf” coverage of the killings.
“Now I’m sure a lot of you are wondering why Greg Bovino, the last guy, was dismissed,” he began. “I want to stress that it wasn’t because he did a bad job or publicly lied about the shooting of an American citizen, or even uh-oh, dressed like a Nazi. It was that he was filmed doing these things. And the president no-likey that.”
After declaring that ICE needs to “tighten up,” Davidson, as Homan, asked the unit commanders to remember the mission objective.
Kenan Thompson replied, “Pass,” while Johnson, also an ICE unit commander, said, “This could be wrong, but army?”
“Close. That’s close,” Homan said. “We’re here to detain and deport illegal immigrants who have committed crimes.
Andrew Dismukes‘ ICE agent pointed out, “That is literally the first I am hearing of that.”
“Just so I know, what were you told you should be doing?” Homan asked, to which Mikey Day replied, “Um, Wild N’ Out?”
Homan reminded them, “We’re not here to intimidate, racially profile, or violate anyone’s rights. So again, what are we looking for?”
After Thompson asked, “Epstein files?” Homan said, “We actually just released those to distract from this. You know, which is ironic because we did this to distract from those.”
Davidson then asked the ICE agents, “When do we use force?”
Jeremy Culhane guessed, “Right away?”
“Nope, uh, think of the opposite,” Homan hinted, to which Dismukes confidently said, “Right, preemptively.”
“We actually don’t want to use force,” Davidson reminded them. “Remember, the job is ultimately about keeping people safe from what?”
“This could be wrong, but Don Lemon?” Johnson guessed, referencing the journalist’s actual arrest for covering a protest at a church.
After Day asked if protestors with guns “shouldn’t be allowed,” Homan asked how many attended the Stop the Steal protest with a “loaded automatic weapon,” as nearly everyone raised a hand.
“Fellas, look, you gotta do better. Look, I’m Tom Homan,” Davidson said, breaking character with a chuckle, to which the audience laughed and clapped. “OK. I am the separating-families-at-the-border guy. I’m the on-film-taking-a-$50,000-bribe guy. And you all are making me look like the upstanding, reasonable adult in the room. That’s crazy!”
After Ben Marshall asked why he wasn’t allowed to be in the local police, and Thompson inquired about destroying evidence, Culhane asked, “Yeah, how come all the fast food in this city tastes like spit?”
To conclude the meeting, Davidson asked the ICE unit commanders, “So what did we learn tonight?”
Johnson responded, “This could be wrong, but that you hired a bunch of angry, aggressive guys, gave us guns, and didn’t train us, so this is maybe what you wanted to happen?”
“Come on, man! Don’t start thinking now!” Davidson scolded.
He added, “The situation out there has been rough, and we need to lower the temperature. So let’s get out there, let’s show some restraint. Let’s do our job without violating anyone’s rights as Americans. Can you do that?”
“No,” Thompson said with a straight face.
“Well, I had to ask,” Davidson conceded. “Maybe just try not to get filmed.”
Saturday Night Live, Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC
More Headlines:
- ‘SNL’ Cold Open: Pete Davidson Returns With Blunt Message to ICE Agents
- WWE ‘Royal Rumble’: Roman Reigns & Liv Morgan Rule During Night of Shockers
- Hayley Erbert & Derek Hough Talk Potential of Her Returning to ‘Dancing With the Stars’ After Craniectomy
- ‘House of the Dragon’ Ending With Season 4
- 2026 Winter Olympics Bring Big Changes: New Events, Theme & More Explained
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.