On S.N.L., Pete Davidson’s Tom Homan tells I.C.E.: ‘Don’t get filmed’

“Saturday Night Live” opened its Feb. 1 broadcast with a Minneapolis-set sketch in which Pete Davidson played White House border czar Tom Homan, instructing I.C.E. agents — and warning them, “Maybe just try not to get filmed.” The New York Times review noted the episode came after criticism that the show had barely addressed the shooting of Alex Pretti, who was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis just hours before the program.

The sketch framed Homan as having taken command of I.C.E. in Minneapolis to “reacquaint” agents with their mission after the dismissal of the previous commander, Greg Bovino. Davidson’s Homan told officers Bovino wasn’t removed for doing a bad job or for publicly lying about a shooting, “or even — uh-oh — dressed like a Nazi.

It was that he was filmed doing these things. And the president no likey that,” the review recounted. Much of the sketch’s humor came from the agents’ clueless answers. Kenan Thompson’s officer could only say “Pass” when asked the mission objective; James Austin Johnson’s character guessed “Army?” when asked what I.C.E.

was doing in Minneapolis.

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