'Trump has lost Joe Rogan': Podcaster hits out at 'horrific' ICE actions

Joe Rogan has expressed concerns about innocent people who have been wrongly caught up in the Trump administration’s deportation crackdown.

During his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, on March 29, Rogan spoke of his support for tougher borders to prevent criminals, but also commented on his fears about those who are being wrongly deported and sent to prison.

"So there's still people coming through, and there's probably people still coming through who are criminals," he said. "But the thing is, you gotta get scared that people who are not criminals are getting lassoed up and deported and sent to El Salvador prisons, like that kind of s***."

He described how "horrific" it was to learn about Andry José Hernández Romero, a gay Venezuelan asylum-seeker who was deported without due process, along with suspected members of the Tren de Aragua gang.

Immigration officials thought Romero's crown tattoos were gang-affiliated inkings with Tren de Aragua, and now Romero's family has spoken out as his mother, Alexis Dolores Romero de Hernández, pleaded: "Let my son go. Review his case file. He is not a gang member."

Lindsay Toczylowski, president of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, also echoed this on MSNBC last week, where she reiterated that the 31-year-old makeup artist is not a gang member and described his body art as “normal tattoos that you would see on anybody at a coffee shop anywhere”.

The immigration attorney added that Romero was sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador, a maximum security prison which houses the most dangerous gangsters and is known for its grim living conditions.

“This is the thing, you know, measure twice, cut once,” Rogan said on the story. “This is kind of crazy.”

“That’s bad for the cause,” Rogan added. “The cause is: Let’s get the gang members out. Everybody agrees. But let’s not get innocent gay hairdressers lumped up with the gangs?”

“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?”

To which guest, political commentator Konstantin Kisin noted that "from a government perspective", they have "no incentive" to admit they made a mistake, but rather to "say nothing, to cover it up, to pretend it didn’t happen," instead.

“So someone ends up in a black hole. But we’ve seen it. We’ve seen it in every country, including in America,” Kisin added.

“But that’s the thing about politics, right? Never admit your fault. Never admit you’re wrong," Rogan remarked.

“This is the thing we’re seeing with the Signal thing, and this is the thing we’re seeing with this. It’s like, I don’t know if it’s been brought to their attention.

The podcaster added: “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."

Similar stories have been making headlines as Jerce Reyes Barrios, a 36-year-old migrant from Venezuela, was deported to a prison in El Salvador, NBC News reported.

His family and attorney say this was due to the professional soccer player and coach's tattoo, inspired by his favourite football team, which immigration officials believed to be associated with the Tren de Aragua gang.

Elsewhere, Joe Rogan will 'never return' to Canada for UFC event, and Joe Rogan 'refuses' to allow 'off the rails' sports star on podcast.

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