Comedian Bill Burr said in a new interview that he believes Immigration and Customs Enforcement will eventually detain the same conservative Americans who support the agency’s immigration raids, while also arguing that illegal immigration is not a driver of rising home prices — a claim that contradicts recent economic research.
Burr made the comments in an interview with Rolling Stone published this week. He opened by describing what he sees as a shift in how Americans view each other compared to earlier in his career.
“I mean, just touring as a comic, how much I’ve seen it change. It used to be like we hated the Russians,” Burr said. “Now it’s like Texas hates California, California hates Texas, these people hate Florida, somebody hates New York. It’s like, guys, same teams. We’re on the same teams here. How would this help you?”
Burr, who stars in “Social Reckoning,” then recounted a story from a stand-up show in which he told a crowd that white Americans, whom he described as “my people,” are not alarmed enough about ICE raids because they assume they won’t be targeted.
“And I go, ‘Who do you think’s going in the van next?’ And this guy in the crowd, he’s like, ‘Liberals.’ I go, ‘Did you just say liberals?’ Dude, you’re literally talking about half of your team,'” Burr said.
“They’re going to work their way back to you. Eventually, you guys will be. These people, they think they’re in the group. They think they’re going to get under the mountain or get on the spaceship. It’s like you’re not. They’re using you,” he said.
Data centers and housing costs
Elsewhere in the interview, Burr said he was suspicious of data centers, suggesting without evidence that they are being used to “monitor” the public, and voiced support for towns that have opposed both ICE operations and data center construction.
“There’s something like all of that, that they need. Those giant things are for, to monitor us. It’s really creepy,” Burr said.
Burr also argued that illegal immigration is not responsible for rising home prices, saying the math simply doesn’t add up given a fixed amount of money in the economy.
“Listen, the reason why, you know, people can’t afford a house is not because of some illegal immigrant who’s making less than minimum wage. I mean, that is basic math. Okay?… So, if one person is taking 90% of it, eventually, you know, people have to live under a bridge,” he said.
That claim runs counter to findings from economists. A Federal Reserve study released earlier this year found that each 1% increase in unauthorized workers in a given area corresponded with roughly a 2.2% rise in home prices and a 1.4% increase in rents, according to Fox Business Network. Fact-checking site PolitiFact has also acknowledged that large concentrations of undocumented immigrants can push up local housing costs.
Burr separately made an inaccurate claim that Walmart owns the Schwinn bicycle brand. Walmart sells Schwinn bikes at retail but does not own the company; Schwinn is owned by Dutch mobility group Pon Holdings, which acquired the brand as part of its 2022 purchase of Dorel Sports.
On “woke”
When the Rolling Stone interviewer suggested that being “woke” simply means showing “common consideration,” Burr pushed back, arguing the concept was co-opted.
“But the toxic left took control of it and informed the toxic right of this is what this is,” Burr said. “Because woke then got into the post Me Too thing where it became like this McCarthyism where it wasn’t, let’s go after these bad guys. It then morphed into, I don’t like what you’re talking about in your act, so maybe you need a little timeout.”
“My favorite thing was there was our people calling themselves woke,” he continued. “They bestowed it on themselves. Why? Because you say so? And then it really became insufferable. So, people on the right, their reaction to woke shit is the white left’s definition of it, which was insufferable,” he said.
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