Michael Che is being criticized for an ICE joke that lacked heat.
The “Weekend Update” co-host made a crack about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on “Saturday Night Live” that didn’t sit well with many social media users.
“I get that ICE agents are people, allegedly,” Che began his joke Saturday night. “And they have a job to do. But at some point while you’re pepper-spraying old ladies or shooting at a nurse, do you ever stop and ask yourself, ‘Are we dicks?’”
Although Che’s quip wasn’t flattering, many fans felt the joke was too soft considering that it was made just hours after 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti was fatally shot by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis Saturday. The unsettling incident follows the fatal shooting of Minneapolis mother Renee Good earlier this month — and mounting fears about the terrifying ways the agency is being used by the Department of Homeland Security amid President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdowns.
“Man, ‘are we dicks’ is not meeting the moment. You know Che can go further than this. He has. Why the fuck is anyone pulling punches right now,” one X user said.
Others on the platform had similar feelings.
Over on Reddit, one user argued that considering the circumstances, the show should have canceled the episode altogether, calling the decision “poor taste.”
“I know that SNL is supposed to be funny, but this is absolutely not something that should be taken lightly by any measure at this point,” the user argued.
“Nothing about what is happening has comedy written on it. This needs to be taken 100% seriously with practical action being taken. All this does is numb stupid people to what’s going on and make them think, well if it’s being joked about it must not be as big of a deal. People need to wake the fuck up.”
Others on Reddit were offended that Che implied that agents were merely “shooting at” Pretti.
Video taken Saturday morning by eyewitnesses showed at least six masked federal agents wrestling Pretti to the ground before firing 10 shots and fatally wounding him.
“‘Shooting at a nurse’ is a very interesting way to describe pinning a nurse down and emptying your magazine into him,” a Redditor said.
“Yeah, ‘shooting at’ doesn’t convey the senseless tragedy of the situation at all,” another Reddit user said. “There was no reason to downplay it, especially by that point in the day. Everyone had seen the footage.”
“The most offensive part of that joke was how disrespectful this was to the murdered victim, not towards ICE,” a Reddit user added.
Scott Olson via Getty Images
Fans’ disappointment with Che’s joke is likely compounded by frustrations with the Trump administration’s claims about the incident.
Pretti was initially seen in multiple eyewitness videos merely filming a confrontation between protesters and officers with his cell phone. Videos show that an officer approached Pretti, sprayed chemicals into his eyes and pushed him to the ground before he was tackled by several agents and eventually killed.
DHS alleged in a statement that Pretti approached Border Patrol officers with a handgun and “violently resisted” them, with Border Patrol commander-at-large Greg Bovino saying an agent fired “defensive shots.”
None of these claims made by DHS are supported by publicly available video evidence. Pretti did appear to have a concealed gun in his waistband, but was not using it during the time of the incident.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara noted at a press conference that Pretti was a “lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.”
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