Milo Yiannopoulos, the right-wing provocateur and former conservative media figure, has returned to the United Kingdom after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement publicly identified him as an “illegal alien.”
Yiannopoulos, who once worked as Kanye West’s chief of staff and previously served as an editor at the far-right outlet Breitbart, was deported from the United States on Friday, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Angelina Vicknair confirmed to Our News Outlet.
The controversial commentator was taken into custody Thursday at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Louisiana after stepping off a flight, before being transferred to a holding facility.
ICE later released a detention photo of Yiannopoulos, showing him looking gaunt and tired, with dark bags under his eyes.
By the following day, he had been removed from the US and sent back to Britain. TMZ reported that Yiannopoulos arrived Saturday morning Pacific time, which was Saturday evening in the UK.
According to DHS, Yiannopoulos entered the United States legally in 2019 but “chose to overstay his welcome,” putting him in violation of US immigration law.
DHS said Yiannopoulos, who has frequently voiced support for mass deportations, was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on July 22 and did not appear for his immigration hearing.
“Being in detention is a choice,” the department added, while urging undocumented migrants to self-deport in exchange for $3,000 and a free flight back to their country of origin.
Milo Yiannopoulos is pictured in a photo after being detained, released by the Department of Homeland Security on Friday
Right-wing influencer Milo Yiannopoulos, who used to be Kanye West’s chief of staff, was detained by ICE earlier this week in Louisiana; pictured 2024
DHS said Yiannopoulos legally entered the US in 2019 but ‘chose to overstay his welcome’ and violated immigration laws
The announcement of his arrest sparked chatter online among prominent right-wing figures. Laura Loomer took credit for his arrest in a phone call with the New York Times.
‘I have been saying this should happen for a long time and now it did,’ she told the publication, adding that Yiannopoulos had been ‘Loomered!’
Loomer and Yiannopoulos were once allies but had a public falling out. Former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X that Yiannopoulos worked on Loomer’s former political campaigns.
‘Milo Yiannopoulos is in ICE custody after I exposed his illegal alien lifestyle. Marjorie Traitor Greene hired Milo to work as her “intern” where he produced her podcast, wrote her book and lived at her house in Rome, Georgia before she sold it,’ Loomer claimed on X.
Greene denied Yiannopoulos lived with her, calling Loomer a ‘vile liar.’
Other right-wingers have celebrated Yiannopoulos’ deportation, with Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, writing ‘Good riddance’ on X.
Since his rise to fame as a political commentator, Yiannopoulos has been an advocate of immigration restriction and mass deportations.
Laura Loomer took credit for Yiannopoulos’ arrest and deportation, celebrating his removal from the US online
West is pictured with Yiannopoulos in Beverly Hills in November 2022, the same month they visited Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago with Nick Fuentes in tow
He said in 2017 that he was in America on an O-1 nonimmigrant visa, which is granted to aliens with an ‘extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics,’ according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
O-1 visas require sponsorship by an ‘agent’ or employer and can also be given to individuals of ‘extraordinary achievement’ in movies and TV.
Yiannopoulos has a longstanding association with West and acted as director of political operations on his 2024 US presidential campaign.
In 2022, during his time as West’s political honcho, he helped arrange the rapper’s explosively controversial Mar-a-Lago summit with Donald Trump and the self-described ‘white identitarian’ streaming star Nick Fuentes.
Yiannopoulos has since dramatically fallen out with Fuentes, whom he now relentlessly derides on X.
Yiannopoulos has supported ICE’s efforts to implement mass deportations and has publicly urged the Trump administration to continue an immigration crackdown
Yiannopoulos characterized himself as ‘ex-gay in 2021.’
In 2017, he exchanged vows in Hawaii with a black man whom he publicly referred to only as ‘John,’ otherwise carefully concealing his identity.
Yiannopoulos has characterized himself as ‘ex-gay’ since 2021, and has commenced divorce proceedings with his husband.
During Trump’s second term, Yiannopoulos has been vocal in urging ICE to step up its expulsion of immigrants who are in the US illegally.
‘There is one concrete thing we must insist on this administration delivering,’ he declared in a post on X last June. ‘It matters a lot more than debts measured in imaginary money. We have got to deport millions and millions and millions of people. Without that, nothing else matters.’
Yiannopoulos has been a staunch supporter of mass deportations, writing in June, ‘Without that, nothing else matters’
Three days later, he wrote: ‘California needs ICE checkpoints at supermarket entrances, gas stations, strip malls, intersections and government buildings, with on the spot deportation for anyone who can’t prove they are in the US legally.’
Our News Outlet attempted to contact Yiannopoulos on Friday for comment.
