"We can fix this with Republican votes, and we will. Every Democrat has opposed money for the Border Patrol and ICE at a time of great peril."

Said Senator Lindsey Graham, quoted in "Senate Adopts G.O.P. Budget, Defeating Democrats’ Affordability Proposals/Republicans pushed through a budget plan with a $70 billion increase for immigration enforcement after an overnight session in which they beat back Democratic proposals aimed at lowering costs" (NYT).

On the other side, there's Senator Chuck Schumer: "This is what Republicans are fighting for. To maintain two unchecked rogue agencies that are dreaded in all corners of this country instead of reducing your health care costs, your housing costs, your grocery costs, your gas costs."

And as long as we're talking about ICE, there's this: "Tom Homan Invites Pope Leo on ICE Ride-Along: 'They’re Talking About Something They Don’t Understand'" (Mediaite). "I’m speaking for myself, a lifelong Catholic. I wish they’d stay out of immigration. They don’t know what they’re talking about. Because if they wore my shoes for 40 years and talked to a nine-year-old girl that got raped multiple times, or stood in the back of a tractor trailer with 19 dead aliens at my feet, including a five-year-old boy that baked to death."

Has there ever been a worse impersonation on "SNL" than Pete Davidson's complete failure even to attempt to seem the slightest bit like Tom Homan?

Look:

I guess they just hoped the audience didn't know Homan, but if you've ever seen him talk, you know he has an especially funny way of talking. What a treat for a comedian to be invited on the show to do a long Homan impression in the cold open. Maybe they thought we'd just be so thrilled to see Pete Davidson again that it would be okay for him to do Homan as just some guy in a bald wig.

Davidson, you lazy bum, compare your Homan to Jim Carrey's brilliant Broderick Crawford:

Ever since I first heard Tom Homan, he's reminded me Carrey's Broderick Crawford. I watched that in real time, some 30 years ago and I've always remembered it as one of the funniest things I've ever seen on television.

"President Trump Gaggles with Press on Air Force One En Route Palm Beach, FL, Jan. 31, 2026."

I'm going to pick through the transcript and will update in about an hour. Meantime, you can pick over the text and pull out your favorite highlights

ADDED: From the YouTube transcript:

"The weekly gatherings of knitters at Needle & Skein, a yarn store in Minneapolis, are typically filled with giggles and storytelling."

"But, earlier this month, a heaviness hung in the air. 'It was just collective exhaustion,' said Paul Neary, a shop employee. 'Minnesotans — we're not going to say the big thing, but we often know what the big thing is just by looking at each other.'... They pulled out their knitting needles and got to work. Neary created the pattern that has now become the well-known 'Melt the ICE' hat, a red beanie-shaped cap topped with a braided tassel.... As a history buff, Neary chose the pattern based on a Norwegian hat used to protest the Nazi occupation of Norway in the 1940s. The hats were called 'nisselue,' which roughly translates to Santa hat...."

From "A red hat, inspired by a symbol of resistance to Nazi occupation, gains traction in Minnesota" (NPR).

"Peter Fritzsche, a history professor at the University of Illinois, said the Nazis were operating on 'obviously a very, very different scale,' but with ICE's presence in Minnesota, people can still feel 'occupied.'... Wendy Woloson, a history professor at Rutgers University at Camden and fellow knitter, said the red hats are a classic response of the crafting world. When knitters want to help in their community, they put their hands to work, she said.... She recalled the pink 'pussy hats' from the 2017 Women's March...."

It's poignant, this urge to do something that finds its release in knitting. It's something very calm indoor people can do when they want to feel they too are engaging in activism. 

ADDED: Speaking of hats in Minnesota, I just ran across this fascinating passage in a NYT article from April 2025:

"Um, the President of the United States called me Monday morning and asked me to deploy here. I got here Monday evening, and I'm staying until the problem's gone."

Said Tom Homan, in Minneapolis, just now. I'm quoting from the transcript at YouTube, here, along with video.

What follows is my edit of the high points from the 35-minute performance:

"Governor Tim Walz called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call..."

"... and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength. I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession. The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I! We have had such tremendous SUCCESS in Washington, D.C., Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana, and virtually every other place that we have 'touched' and, even in Minnesota, Crime is way down, but both Governor Walz and I want to make it better!"

That's from PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP at Truth Social.

That's nice. I can think of a couple cynical things to say, but I'll leave them unsaid.

"What we have is Karoline Leavitt's soundbite claiming they are evildoers in America (rapists, murderers, etc.). But isn't there much more to ask in light of the torture that we are revealing?"

"Tom Homan and Stephen Miller don't tend to be shy. I realize we've emailed the DHS spox, but we need to push much harder to get these principals on the record."

Wrote Bari Weiss, in an internal memo justifying her action, noting the failure to "present the administration's argument."

Quoted in "Scoop: Weiss told top '60 Minutes' producers that delayed segment had problems" (Axios).

Also at Axios: "Yanked '60 Minutes' episode aired in Canada." 

It's easy to find the whole segment on line, but I'm not going to link to it.

Here's the NYT article about the controversy: "Turmoil at CBS News After Bari Weiss Pulls a ‘60 Minutes’ Segment/Several veteran correspondents questioned how Ms. Weiss, the new CBS News editor in chief, had handled the segment, after she defended her decision on a call with the newsroom." Excerpt:

"I know of one landscaper that lost the whole crew he had, and he is just totally out of business, all of a sudden."

That quote is featured at the beginning of yesterday's NYT "Daily" podcast, An Interview With Trump’s Border Czar, Tom Homan."

The quote is presented in a context that feels intended to generate empathy for those who've been affected by the "increasingly aggressive raids." But that "landscaper" — that is, person in the landscaping business — was, apparently, competing unfairly with anyone in that business who is dutifully following federal law and not hiring those in the country illegally.

We have to get a long way into that interview with Tom Homan before we hear the perspective of the ethical businessperson, but it is in there:

Mamdani is this week's Padilla.

Caught on camera: NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani losing it as he tries to force his way to Tom Homan.

If this is how he acts now, imagine the disaster if he ever held office.
Unfit. Unhinged. Unbelievable.

Thoughts? ⬇️ 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/m1vvTgJNIF

— Tony Lane 🇺🇸 (@TonyLaneNV) June 17, 2025

Speaking of Mamdani, there's also this tweet of his from 2020, during the George Floyd rioting:

I think that's what they call the Fox Butterfield Effect.

I ran across this headline in The Washington Post: "Soldiers are arriving at the border — but hardly any migrants are crossing/Trump’s order to send troops to the border comes as the number of migrant crossings is plummeting. Residents in some border cities wonder what the soldiers will be doing."

Here's a Cato Institute description of the Fox Butterfield Effect:

A former reporter for the New York Times, Fox Butterfield, became a bit of a laughingstock in the 1990s for publishing a series of articles addressing the supposed quandary of how crime rates could be falling during periods when prison populations were expanding. A number of critics sarcastically explained that crimes rates were falling because bad guys were behind bars and invented the term “Butterfield Effect” to describe the failure of someone to put 2 + 2 together.

There's also this WaPo headline: "ICE struggles to boost arrest numbers despite infusion of resources/Trump has ordered a wartime effort to increase deportations, but ICE statistics show arrests have dipped so far this month." It's harder to say Fox Butterfield Effect about that.