Joe Rogan said Wednesday that American voters are frustrated because they expected ICE raids to focus on violent criminals, not everyday workers.
The podcaster warned that by arresting people whose only offense is entering the country illegally, ICE risks alienating the electorate. Rogan, who endorsed Trump before the 2024 election and interviewed him during the campaign, criticized the president’s immigration raids at construction sites and other workplaces during an early July episode of The Joe Rogan Experience.
Weeks later, Rogan revisited the topic after Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., suggested on his show that recent pop-up riots against ICE were fueled by Chinese funding to divide Americans ahead of the midterms. Rogan acknowledged that while some foreign influence might be at play, there is also genuine concern that the administration has overstepped.
“So, I absolutely believe this is true, that I’m sure other countries fund similar things, but also it was a reaction to some of the ICE raids, right?” Rogan said. “It was a visceral reaction that a lot of people had to the idea of people just showing up and pulling people out of schools and pulling people out of Home Depot and pulling people that were just hardworking people that maybe snuck over here because they didn’t have a legal way to get over here, but since they’ve been here, they’ve been good people and they’re a part of communities.”
The host continued, “That’s what freaks people out, because when people thought about ICE, they thought, ‘Great, we’re going to get rid of the gang members.’ They didn’t think, ‘Great, you’re going to get rid of the landscaper.’”
“I’m sure some of these riots are manufactured, I’m sure they are,” he added, clarifying he doesn’t fully disagree with Luna’s point. He also emphasized that the U.S. must enforce its borders to keep cartel members and other criminals out. “But the thing that freaks people out is, like, how many corporations rely on illegal labor?” Rogan asked.
He also expressed empathy for the challenges facing undocumented workers.
“If you’re just a landscaper, you’re just a guy who lives in a Third World country and you want a better life, and you say, ‘I heard you can get across, and I heard when you get across, you can get work’ — like, what is that guy going to do?” Rogan said. “That guy doesn’t have the money to hire a lawyer. How is he gonna prove that he is more valuable than a United States citizen that’s already here doing the exact same job?”
Luna argued that both sides benefit from the problem continuing, a theory that unsettled Rogan. “That’s so nuts, and probably so accurate,” he replied.
Trump proposed in July making exceptions for millions of undocumented laborers in various industries, while acknowledging it would anger “radical-right people, who I also happen to like a lot.”
