Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin declined to deny that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were behaving as the "Gestapo" after podcast Joe Rogan raised the concern.
During a Wednesday interview on Fox News, host Dana Perino noted that Rogan compared ICE to the Nazi Gestapo on a recent podcast.
"Joe Rogan, he's got questions about what's happening," Perino said, "and it's probably echoing what many people are thinking."
"How would the department respond to that concern that he raised?" she wondered.
"Well, this answer is very straightforward," McLaughlin replied. "If Tim Walz, if Mayor Frey, would let us in their jails, we wouldn't have to be there at all."
"Because we don't have state and local law enforcement's help, we do have to have a physical presence," she continued. "And I know in the interview as well, and what Joe Rogan just mentioned is the rampant crime we found, more than $9 billion. And we believe that's just the tip of the iceberg."
"If the state and local government would help there, if they would coordinate with the FBI, if they would coordinate with Homeland Security investigations, we would, on an expedited basis, be finding that fraud."
During his Tuesday podcast, Rogan acknowledged that ICE's militarization was problematic.
"You don't want militarized people in the streets," he remarked, "just roaming around, snatching people up, many of which turn out to actually be U.S. citizens that just don't have their papers on them? Are we really going to be the Gestapo? Where's your papers? Is that what we've come to?"
