“Weekend Update” co-anchor Michael Che didn’t hold back on ICE agents on this week’s SNL.
“I get that ICE agents are people, allegedly,” Che said. “And they have a job to do. But at some point while you’re pepper-spraying old ladies or shooting at a nurse, you ever stop and ask yourself, ‘Are we d---s?’”
The joke referenced how Border Patrol agents fatally shot a protester in Minneapolis on Saturday morning. The victim has been identified as Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a U.S. citizen and an ICU nurse at a Minneapolis VA hospital.
Che also responded to Vice President JD Vance’s commentary on anti-ICE protesters.
“JD Vance criticized protesters confronting ICE officers, saying they should instead write an op-ed or argue about it on social media,” Che explained.
Showing a picture of MAGA protesters storming the Capitol in 2021, Che added, “You know, just like these young scholars did on January 6th.”
SNL’s previous “Weekend Update” came under heavy scrutiny for its decision to cut a segment about the ICE protests in Minneapolis. The segment featured new cast member Tommy Brennan, who mocked ICE agents by repeatedly playing a viral clip of one of them slipping on an icy street.
“Just to be clear, I’m not reveling in another person’s pain,” Brennan told viewers. “If I wanted to do that, I would join ICE.”
Outside of the slapstick humor, Brennan took a clear stance against Trump’s immigration policy, telling ICE, “Leave Minnesota alone!”
Despite its strong reception from the in-studio audience, Brennan’s segment only played at dress rehearsal, not the live show. It was released the following morning on the show’s social media pages, which some fans perceived as a “cowardly move.”
On this week’s “Update,” Michael Che got in perhaps the darkest joke of the night:
“The House Oversight Committee announced that next month it will depose Ghislaine Maxwell as part of its Jeffrey Epstein investigation,” Che said. “In the meantime, they’ve turned off the cameras to give her privacy to play with her new chair and long rope.”
As the joke drew some groans from the audience, co-anchor Colin Jost jokingly chided them, “Yeah, take her side!”
