Joe Rogan trashes Trump admin deporting-long-term US residents

Podcaster Joe Rogan criticized the Trump administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcement operations during an episode of his show, pointing to what he described as a focus on quotas rather than targeting serious criminals.

Why It Matters

Rogan, who endorsed Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, interviewed the GOP leader on his podcast and attended his inauguration. Trump campaigned on a tougher immigration platform, promising to deliver what he called the largest mass deportation in American history.

The Trump administration’s immigration agencies have faced scrutiny and criticism for heavy-handed tactics, including aggressive enforcement actions that some say prioritize quotas over targeting serious criminal activity. While the Trump administration has claimed they are targeting the “worst of the worst,” there have been reports of migrants without criminal records and nonviolent immigrants being caught up in the raids.

What To Know

 “Think what’s going on with ICE is one of the things that’s going on with quotas for speeding tickets and things along those lines, is that they have numbers that they want to achieve,” Rogan said on a podcast episode with Josh Dubin, a civil rights attorney, shared on December 30 . “They’ve openly talked about this—they want to remove a certain amount of people per week. And when they do that, I think everything’s on the table.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and top Trump adviser Stephen Miller reportedly set a daily arrest quota of 3,000 for ICE agents. Critics argue that such targets can push agents to prioritize quantity over focusing on serious criminal threats, raising concerns about enforcement practices.

Rogan suggested that in practice, this approach leads ICE agents to target easily accessible individuals instead of prioritizing gang members or cartel figures.

“Then they start showing up at Home Depot instead of like looking for gangbangers and looking for criminals and cartel members. They go to whatever’s easiest pickings so they can get numbers up,” he said.

Rogan cited information from Ed Calderon, a former Mexican military officer who now reports on cartel activity in the U.S.

“He was telling me some horror stories about ICE raids,” Rogan said.

One case Calderon reportedly shared involved a man brought to the U.S. as a baby who never obtained citizenship. His family had entered the country illegally, but he had lived in the U.S. for 20 years, does not speak Spanish, and was deported without any money.

“They deport him, send him to Tijuana…he is essentially an American citizen. He just never lived anywhere else. He just doesn’t have the paperwork. He’s not a criminal.”

Although Rogan endorsed the 79-year-old Trump in the 2024 presidential election, he has recently become a vocal critic of the administration’s immigration tactics. He has repeatedly criticized ICE raids and enforcement practices on his podcast, questioning the agency’s priorities and methods.