Far-right critic of US immigration Milo Yiannopoulos deported for being in US illegally

British far-right political pundit Milo Yiannopoulos hosts the "Bishops Enough Is Enough" rally at the MECU Pavilion in November 2021 in Baltimore. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption

The far-right British commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, who enthusiastically supported President Trump's immigration crackdown, has been arrested and deported for allegedly living in the U.S. illegally.

"On August 27, ICE arrested Milo Yiannopoulos, an illegal alien from the United Kingdom, at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport," the agency said in a post on X. He entered the country legally in 2019 according to ICE, but he then overstayed. "Yiannopoulos was issued a final order of removal by an Immigration Judge on July 22, after failing to show up for his immigration hearing," the agency said in its statement.

In a separate statement to NPR, the Department of Homeland Security said Yiannopoulos was deported back to the U.K. on Friday.

Yiannopoulos rose to prominence through his provocative statements criticizing political correctness, feminism and Islam. He also drew criticism for his alleged ties to white nationalists.

Yiannopoulos broke the mold of other hard-right figures by identifying as a gay man.

Prior to his arrest, Yiannopoulos had incurred the wrath of some in the MAGA movement for his connection to former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and his criticism of Trump.

Greene resigned from Congress earlier this year after a falling out with Trump and MAGA, saying "it was all a lie" because of the focus on other countries and wealthy donors. She also accused Trump of stonewalling the release of the Epstein files.

On August 27, ICE arrested Milo Yiannopoulos, an illegal alien from the United Kingdom, at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) in Kenner, Louisiana. Yiannopoulos legally entered the country on May 14, 2019, through New York City, New York. He chose to… https://t.co/Hk6QBUmGDI pic.twitter.com/DbIhv8Z6PI

Fall from MAGA grace

Yiannopoulos first gained notoriety two decades ago as a writer for the conservative website Breitbart News. He resigned in 2017 after a video surfaced where he appeared to be endorsing sexual relationships between adult men and "younger boys," for which he later apologized. That same year, he embarked on a tour of college campuses that was marked by student protests over what some deemed hate speech.

Among his more controversial proclamations, he equated feminism with cancer, said the U.S. has "a Muslim problem," and created a scholarship exclusively for young white men.

Yiannopoulos went on to intern for Greene in 2022 and helped to run the short-lived presidential campaign of Ye, formerly Kanye West.

He has enthusiastically endorsed Trump's immigration crackdown. "We have got to deport millions and millions and millions of people," he posted on X last summer . "Without that, nothing else matters."

In this Sept. 21, 2017 photo, a group has put up flyers and a booth on Sproul Plaza calling for protesters to "Shut Down Milo Yiannopoulos," at the University of California, Berkeley campus in Berkeley, Calif. Jocelyn Gecker/AP hide caption

But his connection to Greene has drawn the ire of some in the MAGA universe.

Conservative activist Laura Loomer claimed on social media that she had been calling for Yiannopoulos' arrest.

"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," she wrote.

Loomer didn't say what Yiannopoulos had allegedly done to incite violence.

Yiannopoulos was critical of Trump in a 2025 podcast interview where he said the president was "bought, paid for, owned and operated," with regard to Israel.

In its statement to NPR, DHS said it will not allow "aliens in our country illegally to jet around our country."

Yiannopoulos did not immediately respond to NPR's attempts to reach him for comment.

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