Joe Rogan recently expressed his surprise over former President Barack Obama’s firm stance on deporting illegal immigrants during his presidency. The podcast host shared his thoughts in a conversation with conservative podcaster Andrew Wilson, exploring how Democrats might perceive a leader with right-leaning policies.

During the discussion, Rogan, 58, had his producer play a viral video from 2010. The video featured Obama advocating for strong immigration enforcement, which Rogan suggested could be seen as a right-wing approach by today’s standards.

“From the perspective of the left, you might think, ‘Oh, this is acceptable,'” Rogan explained, reflecting on the policies enacted during Obama’s tenure.

He then played a brief clip from a speech Obama delivered at American University in July 2010, where the former president emphasized the need for comprehensive immigration reform.

In his remarks, Obama acknowledged that the immigration system was “fundamentally broken” but argued that halting deportations entirely would be “unwise and unfair.”

At the time, the then-president admitted the system then in place was ‘fundamentally broken’, but that a full stop to deportations would be ‘both unwise and unfair.’

‘It would suggest to those thinking about coming here illegally that there will be no repercussions for such a decision, and this could lead to a surge in more illegal immigration,’ Obama warned.

‘That sounds so Republican. In 2010, that was a Democrat saying that, and everybody was like, “Well, OK,”‘ Rogan reacted.

Joe Rogan reacted to a clip of Barack Obama shying away from the idea of a halt to deportations in 2010

At the time, Obama – seen here giving the July 2010 speech – told American University studen the system then in place was ‘fundamentally broken’ but that a full stop to deportations would be ‘both unwise and unfair’

Rogan then pointed out how Tom Homan was a senior official United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the time. 

‘And he gave him a f**king medal,’ Rogan said, referring to how Obama awarded Homan the Presidential Rank Award for his effectiveness with illegal immigrant deportations in 2015.

More than a decade later, Homan is overseeing Donald Trump’s massive immigration operation in Minnesota and is openly-despised by many progressive Americans for what they see as hardline conservative politices. 

Back in April, Homan vowed to deport every undocumented immigrant in the US and that those who fail to register with the Department of Homeland Security will have those actions treated as criminal offenses, adding that they ‘cannot hide” and will be prosecuted in they remain in the country illegally,

‘Get your affairs in order. If you’re in the country illegally, work with ICE, go to CBP One Home app, and leave on your own,’ Homan said at the time.

Obama, in contrast, said that rounding up and deporting all the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants would be unrealistic and ‘tear at the fabric of this nation’.

Rogan, a self-professed centrist, has soured on Trump in recent months, largely due to his approach to immigration.

In March, Rogan reacted with rage to reports of innocent people being mistakenly rounded up and thrown into maximum security prisons in El Salvador.

U.S. President Donald Trump with Thomas Homan during his first term in 2018. Rogan pointed out how Homan was one of Obama’s top officials at the time

‘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 fumed at the time. He called the concept the ‘horrific’ and ‘kind of crazy’ after offering Trump in late 2024. 

Just this month, as Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota escalated, Rogan compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement to ‘the Gestapo’.

‘I can also see the point of view of the people that say, “Yeah, but 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 his popular podcast.  

‘Are we really going to be the Gestapo? “Where’s your papers?” Is that what we’ve come to?’

Homan’s promotion to point in Operation Metro Surge comes days after Customs and Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino was reassigned following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti last Saturday. 

Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, was fatally shot by two Border Patrol agents during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis – the second fatal shooting involving federal agents in the city this month after the killing of Renee Good, 37, on January 7.    

Homan said this week he spoke with local leaders, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and that Ellison agreed to inform US Immigration and Customs Enforcement when migrants with immigration detainers are released from local jails.

When asked if agents would still arrest migrants whose only alleged crime is being in the US illegally, Homan did not give a definitive answer.

Rogan has decried the ongoing ICE operations occurring throughout the US. Pictured, anti-ICE protesters in Park City, Utah, earlier this week

In Minneapolis, the fatal shooting of 37-year-old protester Alex Pretti last Saturday has enflamed tensions

Pretti and Good’s deaths have enflamed tensions between Minnesota residents and the roughly 3,000 federal agents deployed to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area as part of Operation Metro Surge. 

Administration officials initially argued that both killings were justified and that both protesters were ‘domestic terrorists.’

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was demoted this week for her early characterization of the fatal shooting of Pretti. She is no longer overseeing the operation in Minneapolis.

Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith took the floor on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to call for an end to the operation, which, as of writing, remains ongoing.