WASHINGTON, Aug 29 — Right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos has been detained by US immigration authorities and is facing deportation, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday.
Yiannopoulos was an early supporter of Donald Trump and has voiced support for the president’s immigration crackdown, but he has largely fallen out with the Trump movement.
He was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at New Orleans International Airport on Thursday, the department said on X, describing him as an “illegal alien from the United Kingdom”.
Yiannopoulos had overstayed in the United States after arriving in 2019 and was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on July 22 of this year “after failing to show up for his immigration hearing”.
“He will remain in ICE custody pending removal,” the department, which oversees ICE, said in the post, accompanied by a mug-shot photo of a bearded Yiannopoulos.
Yiannopoulos, 41, entered the public eye a decade ago, casting himself as a gay crusader for free speech and an enemy of “political correctness”, but was widely accused of being racist and misogynistic.
He wrote for the right-wing US news outlet Breitbart News, and backed Trump during the 2016 election campaign but has more recently been critical of the US leader.
In September 2025, Yiannopoulos posted on X: “Total legal immunity for ICE agents when they’re on duty.” — AFP