Comedian Bill Maher pushed back against actor John Leguizamo’s defense of increased immigration during a heated exchange on the latest episode of Maher’s podcast Club Random, challenging the notion that America has an unlimited capacity to absorb new immigrant arrivals.
“There’s plenty of room in America,” the actor said. “Come on. There’s no lack of room.”
Maher disagreed, replying, “It’s never about room. It’s about resources.”
“Countries have to have a border,” Maher added, pointing to surveys indicating that hundreds of millions of people around the world would move to the United States if given the chance. “Lots of countries, excuse me, are s***holes, and they would love to be here.”
Leguizamo quickly pushed back: “The places aren’t s***holes.”
He argued that U.S. interventionism has destabilized Latin American democracies for decades.
“America beat up every democracy that was burgeoning in Latin America,” Leguizamo said, referencing U.S. interests in oil, bananas, and other resources.
Maher acknowledged that corruption, poverty, and repression are driving factors, particularly in some Muslim-majority countries with limited women’s rights. But he maintained that calling these places “s***holes” was not a moral judgment of the people who live there, but rather a reflection of their poor living conditions.
“If you live in a country where you can take a chicken on a bus, that was always my standard,” Maher quipped. “I think I have the right to call that a s***hole country. It doesn’t mean you’re a s***hole person.”
Leguizamo passionately defended undocumented and legal immigrants as essential to the nation’s infrastructure, from food production and child care to healthcare and construction.
“Immigrants are the life source of this country,” he said.
Maher agreed, but insisted that immigration must be orderly and sustainable.
“Most Americans are not anti-immigrant,” he said. “They just want there to be some rules.”
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Maher, however, said that part of the backlash was rooted in the Biden administration’s chaotic handling of immigration, noting that even sanctuary cities such as New York City were overwhelmed.
“They called the bluff,” Maher said, referring to border states busing migrants to liberal cities. “And even the mayor of New York was like, ‘We can’t take all these people.’”