Joe Rogan voices concern over deportations that grab non-criminals

Podcast megastar Joe Rogan spoke out against President Donald Trump’s mass deportation.

Rogan, who runs one of Spotify’s most-listened-to podcasts, endorsed Trump in the 2024 election after the candidate appeared on his podcast. “The Joe Rogan Experience” is particularly popular among young men.

Speaking with comedian Francis Foster and political commentator Konstantin Kisin in an episode released Saturday, Rogan expressed sympathy for migrants traveling over the U.S. southern border. He also repeated a Republican conspiracy that previous “open border” policies were letting more criminals into the country for “some sort of nefarious plan.”

But then, Rogan went on to say:

“There’s still people coming through, and there’s probably still people coming through that are criminals… But the thing is that you gotta get scared that people who are not criminal are getting, like, lassoed up and deported and sent to like El Salvador prisons,” Rogan said, mentioning an instance where someone got deported without evidence that he had a criminal background.

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In March, Trump evoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, last used in World War II, to deport hundreds of people the administration alleged are part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. They were sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador on planes that were in the air as a federal judge ordered that the deportations be halted.

Families of several Venezuelan migrants have said that their loved ones – including a young barber, a gay makeup artist and a professional soccer player – were unfairly targeted in efforts to deport gang members, NBC News reported.

“It’s horrific. It’s horrific,” Rogan said on the podcast as the guests talked about one such case.

One El Salvador native and father to a five-year-old, Kilmar Armando Abrego-Garcia, was among those removed during the swift deportations. His wife, a U.S. citizen, filed a lawsuit calling for his return.

Government officials acknowledged that “an administrative error” led to his deportation, USA TODAY previously reported, but the Trump administration has stated it has no interest in returning him.

“This is the thing, you know, measure twice, cut once,” Rogan said. “Let’s not… innocent gay hairdressers get lumped up with the gangs. Like, how long before that guy can get out?”

Rogan also said he thought it hurt the cause.

“President Trump was elected with a resounding mandate to secure our borders and mass deport criminal illegal migrants,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told USA TODAY in a statement. “The Trump administration is committed to delivering on this mandate and sending a clear message while doing so: our immigration laws will be enforced and must be respected.”

Contributing: Bart Jansen

Kinsey Crowley is a trending news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at kcrowley@gannett.com. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @kinseycrowley.bsky.social.