British far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos was deported to the United Kingdom after his arrest by American immigration authorities, US officials said Sunday.
The US Department of Homeland Security said Yiannopoulos was returned to his home country Saturday after being accused of overstaying after entering the US legally in May 2019. An immigration judge issued a final order of removal July 22 after he failed to show up for an immigration hearing, a Homeland Security spokesperson said.
Yiannopoulos was arrested Friday at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Louisiana and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"He chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws," a Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement.
Yiannopoulos and his representatives did not respond to requests for comment, and he has not posted on the social platform X since Friday.
Yiannopoulos backed Trump's immigration crackdown
Yiannopoulos is a well-known champion of conservative causes and has frequently taken provocative public positions criticising feminism, Islam and immigrants. He has been especially supportive of US President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration enforcement policy, aimed at people in the country illegally.
"Zero immigration for the next 20 years. No ifs, no buts," Yiannopoulos said on X last year.
The British national has most recently worked for the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, who performed in New Orleans on Saturday.
Yiannopoulos rose to fame in the early 2010s as an incendiary writer for the conservative website Breitbart News. He resigned in 2017 after a video of him endorsing paedophilia resurfaced online. He later apologised for the remarks and said he himself was a victim of sexual assault as a minor.
Yiannopoulos’ arrest and deportation come amid a nationwide uptick in detentions as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
In social media posts, the Department of Homeland Security touted Yiannopoulos' arrest and posted a booking photo of him. It added that it encourages people in the country illegally to leave voluntarily, saying the US offers “US$3000 (NZ$5044) and a free flight to self-deport".
"We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the US the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return," the department said.
The department did not respond Sunday to questions seeking more details about Yiannopoulos' legal entry into the US in 2019, including whether he was granted a visa.
Controversy has swirled around the provocateur for years
Far-right conservative activist Laura Loomer swiftly took to social media to applaud Yiannopoulos' arrest after years of public feuding between the two personalities.
"I was the first person to report on the fact that Milo was in the US illegally where he incited violence against President Trump and worked for Marjorie Traitor Greene," Loomer said on X.
Controversy around Yiannopoulos ballooned in 2017 when he carried out what he called his "Troll Academy Tour" across college campuses nationwide. Fights broke out when some students protested his appearances and accused him of hate speech, while others celebrated him as a champion of free speech. Around that time Buzzfeed reported on Yiannopoulos’ cosy relationships with self-proclaimed white nationalists.
In recent years Yiannopoulos continued to work in the orbit of conservative activism. In 2022 he was an intern for former US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, according to the Washington Post. He subsequently ran the short-lived 2024 presidential campaign for Ye.
Most recently, Yiannopoulos has worked as a spokesperson for Ye, who has been beset by controversy of his own following antisemitic comments that the rapper has since apologised for.
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