Joe Rogan said it’s “horrific” to think non-criminals could be lumped in with violent migrant gang members and shipped off to maximum security prisons in Latin America as the US ramps up its deportation efforts.
On Saturday’s episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience,” the mega-podcaster said he was worried about reports of mix-ups in the mass deportations of migrants.
“The thing is, like, you got to get scared that people who are not criminals are getting, like, lassoed up and deported and sent to, like, El Salvador prisons,” the podcaster said to his guest, author Konstantin Kisin and comedian Francis Foster.
“This is kind of crazy that that could be possible. That’s horrific. And that’s, again, that’s bad for the cause,” Rogan said.
He brought up a report of a “gay barber” who was allegedly rounded up with members of the violent Venezuelan street gang Tren de Aragua and thrown into an El Salvadoran prison.
“One young man sobbed when a guard pushed him to the floor. He said, ‘I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber,’” he read from a Time Magazine report from the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador.
“The cause is: Let’s get the gang members out. Everybody agrees. But let’s not [let] innocent gay hairdressers get lumped up with the gangs,” Rogan said.
“And then, like, how long before that guy can get out? Can we figure out how to get them out? Is there any plan in place to alert the authorities that they’ve made a horrible mistake and correct it?”
Rogan, who earlier in the episode praised President Trump for significantly lowering the number of illegal border crossings in the US since taking office, said incidents like this need to be brought to the attention of Trump’s administration if they haven’t already.
“I don’t know if it’s been brought to their attention. I mean, I would assume someone’s alerted them to the fact that they might have rounded up this just random hairdresser and accused him of being a gang member,” the podcaster said.
“If you want reasonable people to be on board with you… compassionate people to be on board with you, you can’t deport gay hairdressers seeking asylum. That’s f–king crazy. That’s nuts.”
The host, who endorsed Trump in the 2024 election, also said that both parties have, over the years, appeared to have a “never admit your fault, never admit you’re wrong” mentality.
Rogan may have been referencing Andry Jose Hernandez Romero, 31, a gay makeup artist from Venezuela who was seeking asylum in the US before he was taken into custody by ICE, The Independent reported, citing the ACLU.
Hernandez Romero, who has denied having any involvement with Tren de Aragua and was seeking asylum because of persecution in Venezuela over his sexuality, was allegedly deported without notice, his ACLU lawyers said.
He was reportedly lumped in with the gang members over his tattoos, but his lawyers said the mix-up allegedly happened because he had a crown tattoo on each arm with the words “mom” and “dad.”
The Post has reached out to the White House and Department of Homeland Security for comment.
ICE officials have made 113,000 arrests and carried out “north of” 100,000 deportations since Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, a Department of Homeland Security source told The Post Monday.
Trump campaigned heavily on cracking down on illegal immigration.
On the first day of his second term, he declared an emergency at the border, sent thousands of additional troops to the region, shut down the asylum system for illegal crossers, and launched a mass deportation effort across the country.
Trump has also invoked the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan gang members to a notorious El Salvadorian “hellhole” mega prison.
