Milo Yiannopoulos Is in ICE Custody Facing Final Removal Order, U.S. Officials Say
WASHINGTON — Milo Yiannopoulos, the British far-right commentator and longtime advocate of mass deportation, is in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Louisiana, facing a final order of removal, according to U.S. officials and agency records.
Yiannopoulos was taken into custody in the New Orleans area and is being held at an ICE facility in Louisiana, the officials said. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Yiannopoulos entered the U.S. legally in 2019 but “chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws.”
According to DHS, an immigration judge issued the final removal order on July 22 after Yiannopoulos failed to appear for his hearing. The spokesperson said he will remain in ICE custody pending removal.
TMZ was the first to report that Yiannopoulos had been detained. Reports also indicated he was in New Orleans ahead of a Friday night concert by Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. Yiannopoulos has previously worked with West on the artist’s political and corporate ventures.
In a statement, the DHS spokesperson said: “Being in detention is a choice. We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App. The United States is offering illegal aliens $3,000 and a free flight to self-deport now.”
The detention has drawn attention to Yiannopoulos’s own history of hard-line immigration rhetoric. Yiannopoulos, who was banned from Twitter for years over abusive posts aimed at comedian Leslie Jones, has in the past called for aggressive ICE enforcement and mass deportation.
“California needs ICE checkpoints at supermarket entrances, gas stations, strip malls, intersections and government buildings, with on the spot deportation for anyone who can’t prove they are in the US legally,” he wrote in June 2025. “Total legal immunity for ICE agents when they’re on duty,” he wrote the following September. “There is one concrete thing we must insist on this administration delivering,” he added in a separate June 2025 post. “It matters a lot more than debts measured in imaginary money. We have got to deport millions and millions of people. Without that, nothing else matters.”