One of the US far right’s loudest mouthpieces has landed back in the UK after finding himself at the receiving end of the brutal immigration crackdown he cheered on.
British influencer Milo Yiannopoulos made a name for himself in Donald Trump’s first term with controversial and provocative comments backing the president’s agenda.
He also worked as an editor at the Trump-supporting outlet Breitbart News, before stepping down over comments that were interpreted by some as endorsing older men abusing children as young as 13.
In recent years Yiannopoulos has slipped from the public eye while maintaining his feverish support for the Maga movement on X.
But he turned against President Trump following the invasion of Iran at the end of February, claiming he had ‘lost his way, bought off by foreign interests’.
Yiannopoulos has previously called for ‘total legal immunity’ for US immigration enforcement and suggested ‘on-the-spot deportation for anyone who can’t prove they are in the US legally’.
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But on Friday, it was revealed he was being booted out of the country himself by the ICE agents he had previously backed.
The US Department of Homeland Security said he had ‘legally entered the country on May 14, 2019’, but ‘chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws’.
In a post on X, the government department 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.’
He was arrested by ICE at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Louisiana on August 27.
According to the Guardian, he was travelling to a concert by the rapper Ye, previously known as Kanye West, whose brief 2024 presidential campaign he worked on.
The newspaper also reported that Yiannopoulos had become locked in a bitter row with Laura Loomer, another top Trump supporter.
Loomer referenced his previous work for then-congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who recently turned against the president after spending years as an outspoken Maga fan, in a tweet on Friday.
She wrote: ‘Illegal alien Milo Yiannopoulos has been detained by ICE.
‘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.’
Yiannopoulos was blocked from Twitter in 2016 for allegedly leading a campaign of racist and sexist abuse against Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones.
And in 2017, he lost a book deal and a spot talking at the influential CPAC conference over comments he made about paedophilia in a discussion with radio hosts.
He told the hosts they were ‘misunderstanding what paedophilia means’, saying: ‘Paedophilia is not a sexual attraction to somebody 13 years old who is sexually mature, paedophilia is attraction to children who have not reached puberty.’
In a Facebook statement posted afterwards, he denied ever endorsing paedophilia and said: ‘I find those crimes to be absolutely disgusting. I find those people to be disgusting.’
Yiannopoulos is now one of the most high-profile targets of ICE, which has arrested more than half a million people since Trump returned to office in a mass deportation push.
Analysis by the Washington Post found nearly 40% of those arrested had no criminal record.
The tactics of agents have also drawn controversy, with criticism over conditions in immigration detention and the deportation of dozens of people who arrived in the US as children and have committed no crimes.
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