A left-leaning online streamer with almost 3 million followers said he was detained at O’Hare Airport for about two hours Sunday so that federal agents could “put the fear of God in me.”
“It wasn’t a very warm welcome. What’s happening, Chicago? What the (expletive) was that?” Hasan Piker, also known as HasanAbi, later recounted on his YouTube channel. Piker, based in California, is Turkish American and frequently criticizes President Donald Trump and the war in Gaza, among other topics discussed on Twitch.
Piker, 33, said in the online account that he was clearly singled out because of his public political statements.
Federal officials on Tuesday dismissed the claims.
At the time he was stopped, Piker had just flown in from France and was in town to give a talk at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. The Monday evening speech went ahead as planned, a university spokesman said.
Piker said customs officials stopped him at the airport and led him to a “detention area.” He described the officials as “very cordial.”
He said he was asked why he was in town, and then the questions turned to his views on Trump and various militant groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Yemeni Houthi rebels.
At one point, he said he was asked if he had ever provided financial or other support to any of those groups.
“I laughed. I said, ‘No, of course not.” Piker said.
Piker said he asked why he was being questioned and was told, he said, “It’s a routine process.”
Federal officials dismissed Piker’s account of the detention on Tuesday, calling the questioning “routine and lawful” and something that can apply to any traveler.
“This is nothing but lying for likes. Claims that his political beliefs triggered the inspection are baseless,” Tricia McLaughlin, U.S. Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary, said in a statement. “Once his inspection was complete, he was promptly released.”
Contributing: AP