Popular podcaster Joe Rogan told Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, that masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are "a problem on our city streets," during an episode of his show released Tuesday.
Rogan has been critical of the Trump administration's immigration policies at times, including recently calling out federal agents for targeting people he described as the "easiest pickings" in order to get quota numbers up instead of looking for "criminals and cartel members."
The Trump administration's immigration agencies have faced scrutiny and criticism for heavy-handed tactics, including aggressive enforcement actions and a January 7 incident in Minneapolis in which ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot resident Renee Nicole Good.
Federal law enforcement agents have repeatedly faced criticism for wearing masks, hiding their identities and arriving in unmarked vehicles. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem has repeatedly said that officers are wearing masks because of assaults against them and doxxing.
Good was fatally shot in her car, sparking protests in the city and debate over the circumstances surrounding her death. President Donald Trump's administration has claimed that the ICE agent involved, Jonathan Ross, acted in self-defense, while local officials maintain Good posed no threat.
In the episode released on Tuesday, Rogan told Paul: "After that woman [Good] was shot, unfortunately -- everything is unfortunate about it--one of the real problems now is that 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," contrasting it to federal immigration officials, saying, "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 s*. That's a problem. That's a problem on our city streets."
He also warned that people pretend or impersonate ICE agents, adding to some of the public's distrust of the agents.
Paul responded to Rogan's comments, saying that it's easier to make the argument for masking when agents are "working right along the border or at night with large groups that there's a lawlessness to the cartels," adding that it does not hold up as well in a courthouse elevator. He noted that local police "don't wear masks."
Rogan went on to say there's a clear difference between the police and ICE, noting federal agents coming into new communities and only coming in on a specific federal mission rather than being called upon by individuals to support or help fight crimes.
"You're not going to be able to get people to do the job unless you allow them to be anonymous," he said, "and then again, allowing them to be anonymous creates a whole host of problems."
Earlier in the episode, he called Good's death a "terrible tragedy," saying that it "seemed all kinds of wrong to me."
Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, during a Thursday press conference: "Law enforcement professionals, real ones, not the fake made up ICE probably Trump's new army to attack citizens of the United States, no law enforcement professional wears a mask. None. None. Those that come into our communities wearing a mask to commit crime...law enforcement professionals do not shoot at moving vehicles. Law enforcement professionals do not stand in front of moving vehicles."
Robert Cerna, acting director of the ICE field office in Dallas, told CBS News: "They wear a mask for their protection and it's not really just their protection, but the protection of their family. We all took an oath to serve this country and enforce immigration laws and that's all we are doing. Now our officers are out there every day enforcing those immigration laws and unfortunately they do have to protect themselves from being doxed and from people harassing them because what we are doing."
Vice President JD Vance, on Thursday: "The precedent here is very simple. You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action. That's a federal issue. That guy is protected by absolute immunity. He was doing his job. The idea that Tim Walz and a bunch of radicals are going to go after and make this guy's life miserable because he was doing the job that he was asked to do is preposterous."
Senator Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, during an MS Now interview: "They [ICE] literally murdered an American. What happened that day was absolute murder and that ICE officer should be in jail....I didn't wear a mask in Iraq."
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Monday announced a joint lawsuit with St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, all Democrats, to "end the unlawful and unprecedented surge of ICE agents in Minnesota," he said in a post on X. "People are being racially profiled, harassed, terrorized, and assaulted. It has to stop."
The Trump administration has announced that more agents will be descending on Minneapolis. DHS said in an X post resharing Trump's Truth Social post that the "THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!"