At Manhattan’s "Immigrant Jam," foreign-born comedians including Lucie Pohl used satire to respond to President Trump’s intensified immigration enforcement. Pohl — who moved from Germany at age eight — created the show to celebrate immigrant experiences and community, though sets have grown darker as rhetoric and enforcement have escalated. Performers such as Jenny Tian and Lakshmi Kopparam mined bureaucracy and citizenship struggles for material, while the audience response was warm and supportive. Organizers noted it remains uncertain how this brand of humour will travel beyond a politically divided U.S.
‘Immigrant Jam’ in NYC: Foreign-born Comedians Roast Trump’s Immigration Crackdown
At Manhattan’s "Immigrant Jam," foreign-born comedians including Lucie Pohl used satire to respond to President Trump’s intensified immigration enforcement. Pohl — who moved from Germany at age eight — created the show to celebrate immigrant experiences and community, though sets have grown darker as rhetoric and enforcement have escalated. Performers such as Jenny Tian and Lakshmi Kopparam mined bureaucracy and citizenship struggles for material, while the audience response was warm and supportive. Organizers noted it remains uncertain how this brand of humour will travel beyond a politically divided U.S.
09:23 AM, 11/15/2025Culture
Immigrant comedians mock Trump’s immigration crackdown at 'Immigrant Jam' in NYC
Lucie Pohl opened a night of stand-up in Manhattan by taking a pointed swipe at President Donald Trump’s tougher stance on migration. "Are there any immigrants here? Or did we get rid of all of them?" the German-born comic asked as she scanned the Friday-night crowd at Caveat, a small Lower East Side venue.
Trump has overseen expanded immigration enforcement and frequently suggested a link between migrants and crime — a connection that available data do not support. New York’s Democratic mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani described aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions as "a reckless entity that cares little for the law and even less for the people that they're supposed to serve."
Onstage, however, a group of foreign-born comedians used satire and personal stories to push back against the rhetoric, finding humor in everything from paperwork to citizenship tests while also confronting darker realities.
'Darker' material, bright camaraderie
"We got a new mayor.... Who's happy?" Pohl shouted to cheers. Pohl, who moved from Germany at age eight, said she began performing during Trump’s first term because she felt frightened and wanted to create "a space to celebrate immigrants — something about joyful coming together, not a fearful coming together around immigrants."
Australian comic Jenny Tian joked that it took two years of paperwork to prove she was an artist eligible to perform in the U.S.: "Proving my comedic abilities to your government. And I managed to get in," she quipped. Lakshmi Kopparam, originally from India, said much of her material already springs from migrant experience; she joined the show's rotating lineup after Pohl reached out on social media.
The audience — which included Colombians, Bulgarians and Israelis — was warm and supportive; Pohl said she could not remember any heckling that night. Argentinian attendee Martin Calles, who has lived in the U.S. for 35 years, contrasted the immigrant-centered themes with typical U.S. comedy tropes: "American comedians tend to talk about living in their parents' basements and doing drugs. This is really more about, like, 'I took my citizenship test.' Very relatable," he said.
When a German audience member mentioned he had just moved to the United States, Pohl quipped, "Why? Did you have to see how poor people without health care live?" The jokes were pointed but not mean-spirited — though performers acknowledged it was unclear whether the humour would land beyond a cosmopolitan, politically divided city.
The evening blended satire, storytelling and solidarity, illustrating how comedy can both push back against political rhetoric and create a celebratory space for immigrant voices amid heightened enforcement and debate.