ICE Targets ‘SNL’s Marcello Hernandez In New Video
The professional trolls who run social media for the Trump administration retaliated against pop star Sabrina Carpenter over the weekend, but it was Saturday Night Live’s Marcello Hernández who took the brunt of the “joke.”
It all started last week when the government’s meme team released another video featuring aggressive arrests by government agents, this time set to Carpenter’s song, “Juno.” It’s not the first time the agency has used popular music without permission — in recent months, Olivia Rodrigo, Kenny Loggins, MGMT, and Blue Öyster Cult have all cried out when their songs were used as the soundtrack for the administration's social media messages.
“This video is evil and disgusting,” Carpenter complained on X. “Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.” The White House took down the video — on X, anyway. It’s still up on TikTok.
Don't Miss
Despite removing one of the posts, a White House rep was less than contrite in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. “Here's a Short n' Sweet message for Sabrina Carpenter: We won't apologize for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country.”
(“Short n’ Sweet” is the Carpenter album featuring “Juno” — get it?)
But our government wasn’t done clapping back at Carpenter. Over the weekend, it posted a new video, doctoring a promotion Hernández and Carpenter recorded for her SNL hosting debut earlier this fall. In the original, Carpenter threatened to “arrest” the comedian for being too hot. In the new version, a new word is dubbed in: “I think I might need to arrest someone for being too illegal.” The clip then features more ICE agents chasing down, tackling and arresting people.
What makes the new video more chilling is the fact that Hernández, who was born in Miami, has two parents who are immigrants (his father from the Dominican Republic and his mother from Cuba). In a world where American-born citizens with brown skin feel the need to carry multiple forms of identification to prove their legal status to aggressive immigration agents, the doctored video feels much more threatening than one that simply borrows a hit song.
People will complain about using Hernández and Carpenter without their permission, and if things go as they usually do, the White House will take down this video as well. But the trolls will have already accomplished their mission, drawing attention to ICE efforts while incensing half the country. After all, according to a White House post from July, “nowhere in the Constitution does it say we can’t post banger memes.”
Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen.
