British right-wing political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
As per ICE's inmate registry, the 41-year-old, a former editor of Breitbart News and onetime political aide to rapper Kanye West, is being held in Louisiana.
Why was Milo Yiannopoulos detained by ICE?
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Yiannopoulos "was issued a final order of removal by an Immigration Judge on July 22, after failing to show up for his immigration hearing", and will remain in custody pending deportation.
The self-styled provocateur has called himself the "most fabulous supervillain on the internet”.
Milo Yiannopoulos' arrest
Yiannopoulos, who grew up in Kent in the south of England, was arrested on August 27 after arriving at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
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He flew into the US in May 2019 and "chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation's laws", revealed DHS.
The DHS statement referred to him as "an illegal alien from the United Kingdom".
A former Donald Trump supporter, Milo's arrest came after he called for ICE checkpoints at supermarkets in the US, with summary deportation of anyone failing to prove legal US residency.
"Being in detention is a choice," the DHS statement continued, calling on migrants who are in the US illegally to "self-deport now".
Milo Yiannopoulos embroiled in controversies
Yiannopoulos has courted controversy with his comments on transgender people, Muslims, Black Lives Matter, feminists and queer communities, even though he himself identified as gay. He now calls himself an "ex-gay".
He was banned from entering Australia in 2019 over his anti-Islam commentary.
In 2020, he assisted Kanye West in the rapper's bid to become president. He also worked for Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Republican congresswoman who fell out with Trump and became a fierce critic before resigning from office.
He has written columns titled "Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy" and "Would You Rather Your Child Had Feminism or Cancer?"
He has also cheered on ICE raids, writing on X last year, "Total legal immunity for ICE agents when they're on duty."
He posted in 2025, "We have got to deport millions and millions of people. Without that, nothing else matters."
Laura Loomer takes credit for Milo Yiannopoulos' arrest
Laura Loomer, a far-right commentator and Trump ally who has feuded with Yiannopoulos, took credit for his arrest by ICE.
She posted on X on Friday night that his flight back to the UK had already departed.
"This subversive foreign agent is already out of the United States and DHS tells me he's NEVER allowed to come back to the United States ever again," she said.
