Saturday Night Live comedian Michael Che condemned ICE, just hours after a federal agent fatally shot a protester in Minneapolis.
Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, was protesting the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown on Saturday morning, when a Border Patrol agent opened fire. Pretti’s death came less than three weeks after an ICE agent killed protester Renee Good in Minneapolis.
On the Jan. 24 episode of SNL, Che addressed the violence in Minnesota during the “Weekend Update.”
“Vice President J.D. Vance criticized protesters confronting ICE Officers, saying they should instead write an op-ed or argue about it on social media. You know, just like these young scholars did on January 6th,” the comedian said as a picture appeared on screen of a mob storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Che then slammed ICE for shooting Pretti and using pepper spray on protesters.
“I get that ICE agents are people, allegedly, 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 to ask yourself, ‘Are we dicks?’” he said.
Weekend Update with Colin Jost and Michael Che! pic.twitter.com/OlozUjQNRe
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) January 25, 2026
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem held a news conference Saturday after the shooting, and said the Border Patrol agent acted in self-defense.
“This individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun,” she said. “Fearing for his life, and for the lives of his fellow officers around him, the agent fired defensive shots.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey reviewed footage of the shooting and said Noem’s claim that the agent fired in self-defense was false.
“I just saw a video of more than six masked agents pummeling one of our constituents and shooting him to death,” Frey told reporters. “How many more residents, how many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?”
The Guardian reviewed bystander video and reported Pretti “was holding a phone, not a gun, when he was tackled and shot.”
Pretti’s family released a statement obtained by CNN and called the ICE agents “thugs.”
“We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital,” the statement read. “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed.”
The family concluded, “Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.”
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