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3471Joe Rogan wasted no time ripping into the immigration enforcement system, saying it’s crazy that someone could be harassed by ICE just for looking a certain way, during a recent podcast with Joey Diaz, a stand-up comedian, podcaster, and actor.
“There’s a big difference between getting arrested for a violent crime and just going to Home Depot cuz you’re brown,” Joe Rogan said. “That’s crazy.”
One moment in particular stood out: his story about an American veteran who was reportedly harassed by ICE agents outside a Home Depot just because of the color of his skin.
The man was an army veteran and “worked at a management position at a big construction firm, so he had like a prestigious job, he was like a legit guy,” Rogan told Diaz.
He continued saying that the man “looks like a guy who has money, but these ICE guys pull him over and demand that he show them their paperwork.”
“He was like, ‘I’m a f***ing American citizen. I was born in America, and I served my country for 25 years, and you f***ing idiots are just gonna harass me in the parking lot because my family is of Spanish descent?’” Rogan recalled what the man told him just after the encounter.
Rogan finished the story by saying that the ICE agents “looked at him cuz he’s brown, that’s it. There’s no other way you’re going to point to that guy and think he’s an illegal. That guy’s driving a brand new Silverado with a construction logo on the side of it.”
Due Process or No Process?
The conversation quickly escalated into a broader critique of immigration enforcement tactics.
Rogan emphasized the need for due process before detaining or deporting anyone.
“It’s due process all I want,” Rogan said. “I can’t throw somebody back in prison like that just because of a tattoo.”
He raised concerns about innocent people being lumped in with criminals simply based on appearance.
“If you’re just rounding people up and this guy that you f***ing hate happens to be from Nicaragua… people are crazy, they do shi* like that all the time.”
Clerical Errors, Quotas, and Real Lives
Joey Diaz chimed in, calling out the real-world consequences of bureaucratic overreach.
“You’re gonna have a couple clerical errors,” he said. “But just be big enough to say we made a clerical error. Don’t keep saying, ‘I know you’re a gang member because you got a f***ing tattoo on.’”
Rogan added that systems with quotas could make the situation worse.
“You don’t want to play games with people. I think even on ticket quotas, there’s a percentage that they know they’re going to get beat… There is a quota, but if there’s a quota for how many immigrants we’ve got to send back, you’ve got to have a problem, cuz then now you’ve made it a game. And now I’m trying to score points. A few of them might not be guilty, but f*** it, who cares?”
Freedom Has to Work for Everyone
The episode didn’t just touch on immigration. It shifted into how power can be abused in many systems, especially when driven by fear or bureaucracy.
Rogan cautioned that “snitches get rewards” policies, like the one implemented in Los Angeles during the pandemic, set a dangerous precedent.
“If you give people the ability, if you can like anonymously tip that people are immigrants here illegally… that’s gonna be a problem,” he said.
“There are legit scumbag racists out there.”
To Rogan and Diaz, the core issue is not whether people are being punished for crimes, it’s whether the punishment fits and whether the process is fair.
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