Podcaster Joe Rogan shared his thoughts about ICE on the recent episode of his podcast. During the conversation with the guest and Kentucky senator Rand Paul on January 13, he mentioned that after Renee Good from Minneapolis was shot by ICE officials, everything became unfortunate. He added:
“One of the real problems is now ICE are villains and now people are looking at them like murderous military people that are on the streets of our city and they’re masked up, which is also a problem, right? Because if you get arrested by a cop, you you’re allowed to ask the cop, ‘What is your name and badge number?’ And you could film that cop.”
Joe Rogan went on to say:
“If you get arrested by an ICE agent, you have no such right. They’re wearing a mask. They don’t have to tell you sh*t. That’s a problem. That’s a problem on our city streets, right? Because you could also pretend to be an ICE agent, right?”
Joe Rogan said that he saw a recent story where a family was killed by someone who pretended to be a UPS driver. He said if one could pretend to be a UPS driver, they could surely claim to be ICE. He added:
“So, think about how many people can get arrested or robbed or by criminals, right? Because you could just have people pretending. It’s impossible to fake their logo, right? It’s pretty easy. Just says ICE, you know, how hard is that? You could easily imagine armed gangs pretending to be ICE agents robbing people.”
Joe Rogan and Rand Paul talk about the role of local police
Responding to Joe Rogan, Rand Paul said that hiding the identities of ICE officers might make sense when they worked near the border at night or around dangerous criminal groups. However, he said it was harder to justify in other places. He mentioned seeing ICE officers wearing masks while arresting women and children in a courthouse elevator in Chicago, and he felt that in that situation, the masks did not seem necessary. Rogan claimed:
“They’re worried about being doxed.”
Paul added:
“But our local police have to do that and they don’t wear masks. You see what I mean? Local police go to the courthouse to arrest somebody and the bright lights of the city during or during the day.”
Joe Rogan said:
“But again, the local police have to state their name and badge number. The local police have always been here. The ICE element is completely new, right?”
Paul said that for the regular arrests, they could opt out of wearing masks. However, Rogan added that once they stopped wearing masks, their chances of getting doxed could become higher. He mentioned how people had doxed these officials and threatened their families. Overall, he believed that ICE became a “new factor” in the community. Joe Rogan said:
“And they’re wearing masks. It’s that’s a big difference. It’s not the same comparison.”
Joe Rogan said that most people believed that having police is necessary. However, these people also believed that ICE was operating illegally and that masked people shouldn’t be roaming the streets.
Edited by Anuj Basak