Former cast member Pete Davidson returned to Saturday Night Live to channel border czar Tom Homan for a cold open sketch rallying a group of federal immigration agents during a pep talk set in Minneapolis.
Davidson’s Homan quipped that it was “crazy” that he appeared to be the only “reasonable adult” present, while the bumbling agents around him — played by cast members — failed to grasp their mission.
The sketch for the 1,000th episode of the long-running series comes just days after President Donald Trump deployed Homan to Minnesota to help defuse tensions sparked by a surge of federal immigration officers who have carried out hundreds of arrests and several fatal shootings, sparking international outrage as the state emered as the epicenter of the president’s mass deportation campaign.
On Thursday, Homan — who previously served under former President Barack Obama — announced “massive changes” would be coming to Minneapolis after reaching an agreement with local and state officials that would “draw down” the number of agents in the city.
“Now I’m sure a lot of you are wondering why Greg Bovino, the last guy, was dismissed,” Davidson’s Homan said. “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.”
“So I’m here now and we need to tighten up,” he said.
Davidson’s Homan then asked the agents in the audience several basic questions about their mission in the city — which none of them could answer correctly.
“Now who can tell me why we’re here in Minneapolis?” he said.
One agent said “pass.” Another chimed in: “This could be wrong but, Army?”
“What were you told you should be doing?” Davidson’s Homan followed up.
“Um, wilding out?” said another. Another questioned if the job was to keep Americans safe from former CNN reporter Don Lemon, who was arrested this week.
An exasperated Davidson as Homan said: “Look, I’m Tom Homan, OK? I’m the ‘separating families at the border guy.’ I’m the ‘on-film taking a $50,000 bribe guy.’ And y’all are making me look like the upstanding, reasonable adult in the room. That’s crazy.”
The lines appeared to reference Homan’s role in Trump’s first administration and an allegation that he accepted a cash bribe from federal agents, which he has denied.
“Let’s recap,” Davidson’s Homan said. “What did we learn today?”
“This could be wrong,” one federal agent responded. “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?
“Oh come on, man,” Davidson’s Homan said. “Don’t start thinking now.”
