As the Trump administration continues to implement its immigration crackdown, the president’s deportation efforts are beginning to attract criticism even from a few of his most high-profile supporters.
On Saturday’s episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” the popular podcaster, who backed Trump in November, referred to a recent deportation operation as “horrific.”
“You got to get scared that people who are not criminals are getting, like, lassoed up and deported and sent to, like, El Salvador prisons,” Rogan said.
Rogan referenced the deportation of Andry José Hernández Romero, a makeup artist and hairdresser from Venezuela who was seeking asylum in the United States. The 31-year-old was deported to El Salvador last month after the Trump administration accused him of belonging to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. Immigration officials cited Hernández Romero’s tattoos — a pair of crowns on his wrists reading “Mom” and “Dad” — as evidence of links to the gang. However, as experts have noted, Tren de Aragua, unlike other Latin American gangs, is not known for using tattoos to identify its members in general, or tattoos like Hernández Romero’s in particular.
“That’s bad for the cause,” Rogan said. “The cause is, ‘let’s get the gang members out,’ everybody agrees. But let’s not [let] innocent gay hairdressers get lumped up with the gangs, and then, like, how long before that guy can get out? Can we figure out how to get him out? Is there any plan in place to alert the authorities they’ve made a horrible mistake and correct it?”
Hernández Romero is just one of more than 200 Venezuelans the Trump administration has deported to El Salvador in recent weeks by invoking the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law that had only been used during wartime — a move that’s currently being challenged in court.
Rogan isn’t the only figure on the right who is calling out Trump over his immigration enforcement. Earlier this month, conservative commentator Ann Coulter publicly questioned the administration’s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and green-card holder who participated in pro-Palestinian protests on campus last spring.
In a post on X, Coulter wrote, “There’s almost no one I don’t want to deport, but unless they’ve committed a crime, isn’t this a violation of the first amendment?”
David J. Bier, the director of immigration studies at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute and a former GOP aide on Capitol Hill, told The New York Times that some influential figures on the right believe some of Trump’s immigration policies are a threat to the country’s constitutional principles.
“We’re talking about doing something extraordinary here for the government to sentence people to what’s essentially slave labor, torture, prison in El Salvador based on nothing,” Bier said. “Once we get in the neighborhood of getting rid of due process, that’s the thing that protects all of our citizenship rights.” While Trump faces some cracks in support from right-wing pundits, elected Republicans appear more hesitant to break with him publicly. One exception is the Republican mayor of Springfield, Ohio, Rob Rue, whose city was a frequent target of Trump on the campaign trail due to its concentration of Haitian immigrants. In February, Rue told Newsweek that Trump’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian immigrants would harm his city’s economy and immigrant families. In a post on X, Coulter wrote: “There’s almost no one I don’t want to deport, but, unless they’ve committed a crime, isn’t this a violation of the first amendment?” “I encourage this administration to reform federal immigration policies in a way that protects our borders, ensures fairness, and enriches our nation — while also giving immigrants seeking to become productive citizens a clear path forward instead of facing immediate deportation,” he said. “I firmly believe in protecting our borders and reforming our immigration policies. Hasty changes and swift deportation will cause hardworking immigrants to be lost, negatively impacting our economy.” “These individuals were given hope and a sense of security through the Temporary Protected Status policy, which has been embraced by several administrations,” Rue added. “The United States must continue to be a beacon of hope and a torchbearer of democracy.”
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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