A top Department of Homeland Security official fired back at Joe Rogan after he defended protesters comparing ICE to Hitler’s Gestapo amid ongoing unrest in Minneapolis over the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good.
The mega-popular podcaster told Republican Sen. Rand Paul that he understands the “point of view” of critics who have likened federal immigration agents’ tactics to those of the Nazi-era secret police force.
“You don’t want militarized people in the streets just roaming around, snatching people up — many of which turn out to actually be US citizens that just don’t have their papers on them,” Rogan said on Tuesday’s episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
“Are we really gonna be the Gestapo? ‘Where’s your papers?’ Is that what we’ve come to?”
Rogan, who endorsed President Trump, noted the situation is also “complicated” after acknowledging why conservatives believe sweeping ICE raids are needed to undo the “damage” linked to illegal immigration.
Tricia McLaughlin, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, responded to Rogan’s take on Wednesday.
“If Tim Walz and Mayor [Jacob] Frey would let us in their jails, we wouldn’t have to be there at all,” she told Fox News.
“Currently, there are 680 illegal aliens that includes murderers, that includes rapists, child pedophiles, people, who whether you’re Republican or Democrat, you would never want these people to be on your streets or your neighbors,” she continued.
“That’s the people who we are targeting and we’re trying to get out of Minneapolis because we don’t have state and local law enforcement’s help. We have to have a physical presence on the ground there.”
The controversial topic came up as Rogan and the Kentucky lawmaker were discussing Good, who was shot dead by ICE agent Jonathan Ross when she clipped him with her SUV while attempting to flee after blocking a Minneapolis street on Jan. 7.
The Trump administration has said Ross had no choice but to open fire on the anti-ICE activist, claiming the mother of three “weaponized” her plum Honda pilot against the law enforcement officer and hit him.
“I’m not that guy, I don’t know what he thought, and again, this is a guy who had almost been run over, but it just looked horrific to me,” Rogan said on his hit podcast.
“When people say it’s justifiable because the car hit him, it seemed like she was kind of turning the car away. It seemed like she was out of her f—king mind to begin with. That lady seemed crazy. But does that mean she should be shot in the head? Is there no other way to handle this?”
Good’s death has since sparked raucous rallies and violent viral clashes between agitators and immigration officers, which resulted in DHS deploying thousands of additional agents to the Twin Cities.
Some 2,000 immigration agents were sent there in the last week to help carry out “Operation Metro Surge,” the largest such enforcement operation ever in the region, netting hundreds of arrests so far.
But the surge of agents is still ramping up, according to sources cited by CNN, which said another 1,000 immigration officers are joining the effort.
