‘Controversial’ Podcaster Splits from Trump on ‘Horrific’ Deportations

Joe Rogan is raising red flags over what he sees as a disturbing consequence of the Trump administration’s tough immigration policy: the wrongful deportation of innocent migrants.

During the March 29 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan applauded former President Trump’s push to crack down on illegal immigration but didn’t hold back when it came to one case that, in his view, went way too far.

“You got to get scared that people who are not criminals are getting lassoed up and deported and sent to El Salvador prisons,” Rogan said, visibly shaken. “It’s horrific. It’s horrific.”

The case he’s referring to involves Andry, a 31-year-old gay Venezuelan make-up artist who came to the U.S. seeking asylum. Instead, he was deported to El Salvador—without due process and without a criminal record.

Andry’s lawyer, Lindsay Toczylowski, founder of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, told MSNBC that U.S. immigration officials wrongly believed his tattoos signaled ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. But she insists they were nothing more than common tattoos—“normal tattoos that you would see on anybody at a coffee shop anywhere.”

Even worse, Andry was reportedly sent to El Salvador’s infamous Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT—a prison known for its brutal conditions.

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

He continued, “That’s bad for the cause. 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?”

And Andry wasn’t the only one. Another Venezuelan asylum-seeker, Franco José Caraballo—a barber with no criminal record—was also reportedly deported to CECOT, according to CBS News.

“How long before that guy can get out?” Rogan asked on the show. “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?”

His guest, political commentator Konstantin Kisin, wasn’t optimistic. “That’s the thing about politics, right? Never admit your fault. Never admit you’re wrong,” he said.

“It’s so dumb,” Rogan replied. “And this is the thing we’re seeing with the Signal thing, and this is the thing we’re seeing with this. I don’t know if it’s been brought to their attention.”

He added, “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.”

Rogan’s reaction highlights growing concern that in the rush to root out violent criminals, the system may be sweeping up people who don’t belong behind bars—let alone in some of the world’s harshest prisons.