Milo Yiannopoulos, cheerleader of mass deportations, detained by ICE

The Homeland Security Department has said Yiannopoulos, British conservative commentator and website editor, was issued a final removal order last month and will be deported from the U.S.WASHINGTON (CN) — Milo Yiannopoulos, the controversial right-wing commentator who has called for “total immunity” for federal agents conducting mass deportations, has been detained by immigration enforcement and will be removed from the country.The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Friday afternoon that Yiannopoulos, who is from the United Kingdom, was in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pending deportation. The agency shared a mugshot of the conservative provocateur to social media, writing that Yiannopoulos “chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws.”A supporter of President Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign, Yiannopoulos had under the second Trump administration been a vocal proponent of the president’s mass deportation effort, urging the White House to go to extremes to remove people here illegally from the country.“Total legal immunity for ICE agents when they’re on duty,” Yiannopoulos wrote in September 2025, months before immigration agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in the streets of Minneapolis. The former Breitbart editor and campaign adviser to rapper and onetime presidential candidate Kanye West also said last summer that supporters of the Trump administration must “insist” that it “deport millions and millions of people.”“Without that, nothing else matters,” wrote Yiannopoulos.ICE agents arrested Yiannopoulos on Thursday at Louisiana’s Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and according to Homeland Security a final order of removal was issued by an immigration judge in July.Yiannopoulos, 41, first entered the U.S. on a legal visa in 2019. He will remain in federal custody until he’s deported, DHS said.“Being in detention is a choice,” the agency wrote in a statement — using language it has long employed to discuss mass deportations. “The United States is offering illegal aliens $3,000 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”Yiannopoulos, though a major figure in the right-wing media sphere during Trump’s first administration, has since found himself at odds with other conservative figures such as Laura Loomer, an ally of the president who’s chafed at Yiannopoulos’ recent stint as an intern for former Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.Writing in a post on X Friday, Loomer said that Yiannopoulos’ arrest was “a great day for America.” She took credit for reporting his immigration status to the Trump administration.“I was the first person to report on the fact that Milo was in the U.S. illegally where he incited violence against President Trump and worked for Marjorie Traitor Greene,” said Loomer, invoking an often-used nickname for the former Republican lawmaker who has fallen out with Trump.Yiannopoulos first rose to prominence in 2014, where as an editor at Breitbart he was a central figure to the Gamergate controversy — an online harassment campaign against women which stemmed from video game culture and formed part of the groundwork for the alt-right political movement.BuzzFeed News reported in 2017 that Yiannopoulos had worked with white nationalists to workshop story ideas while at Breitbart. He’d left the publication that year after video emerged of him saying sex between 13-year-old boys and adults could be “perfectly consensual.” Yiannopoulos said at the time that he condemned sexual abuse.Yiannopoulos most recently worked on Kanye West’s ill-fated 2024 presidential campaign. He’s claimed that while working for West he arranged a 2022 dinner between Trump and far-right commentator Nick Fuentes in an effort to make the then-Republican presidential candidate look bad.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads