Brooklyn Nine-Nine is trying to figure out how to do an immigration-themed episode tackling ICE while still being funny

Los Angeles Times

"It’s tough. We don’t ever want to rush them," co-creator Dan Goor tells the Los Angeles Times. "We really wanted to do an immigration one, and it just — we like doing them when we have a nuanced view, and it felt like an issue for which there is no nuance. So it felt hard to do it in a way that didn’t just seem (like a) PSA. And there’s an argument that maybe that’s worthwhile anyway. So that’s a thing we’ve talked about a lot. I mean, we talked about (racial profiling episode) 'Moo Moo' for two seasons before we figured out how to do it. I think a thing that’s very interesting about police and immigration is that the police are often really anti-ICE, because it prevents immigrants and undocumented people from coming forward and being participants in the community. So it has this real rebound effect, which makes the world a less safe place. We’ve been trying to figure out a story that sort of gets at that element of it, because that’s a thing that people might not think about, or realize. But I feel like our characters are so woke that it’s very hard to do just a standard issue ... It’s like, what’s happening is so horrible and so it’s a little harder to figure out a story. And also, our mandate is always, when we do these, to be really funny still."