Milo Yiannopoulos advocated for deportation for years. Now DHS confirmed that he has been deported to the UK

Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported to the United Kingdom, following his detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday, CNN reported. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that the British right-wing figure was removed from the United States on Friday.

The situation began at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Kenner, Louisiana, where Yiannopoulos was taken into custody. According to the Department of Homeland Security, he entered the country legally on May 14, 2019, but chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws. Officials noted that an immigration judge had already issued a final order of removal on July 22, after Yiannopoulos failed to appear at a scheduled hearing.

Yiannopoulos notably spent a significant amount of time in his later years advocating for the very policies that led to his own removal. He frequently used his account on X to call for aggressive immigration enforcement. In a June 2025 post on X, he insisted that the administration needed to follow through on promises of mass deportations, stating, “We have got to deport millions and millions and millions of people. Without that, nothing else matters.” He suggested implementing checkpoints to facilitate on-the-spot deportation for anyone unable to prove their legal status.

Yiannopoulos even went as far as to call for total legal immunity for ICE agents

While some online chatter suggested that the arrest was the result of a report filed by far-right influencer Laura Loomer, officials have downplayed any connection. Border Czar Tom Homan addressed the matter on Sunday, noting that while people often call ICE to report individuals, the agency acted because of the existing court order.

Homan emphasized that the move was part of a broader effort to increase the efficiency of removal proceedings rather than a targeted political act. “We don’t deport people based on political affiliation,” Homan stated during an interview. “As soon as we get an order of removal, our goal is removing as quick as possible, regardless of who they are.”

Yiannopoulos built his public persona as a provocative conservative voice, first gaining notoriety as a senior editor at Breitbart News. He was a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign and often framed his public speaking tours as a battle against political correctness. His career was marked by controversy, including a 2017 incident where he made comments that appeared to condone pedophilia. That backlash resulted in him losing a book deal and being disinvited from the Conservative Political Action Conference.

In more recent years, his influence shifted as he moved away from his earlier brand. He began renouncing his sexual orientation as a gay man and even claimed in a 2022 Telegram post that he was working as an unpaid intern for Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. He also spent time working on the 2024 presidential campaign of Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.

Despite his attempts to remain relevant in the political sphere, his legal status in the country remained a point of confusion. While he appeared at public events in the United States for years, it remains unclear how he was operating prior to 2019. He previously claimed to hold an O-1 visa for individuals of extraordinary ability.

Now that he has been returned to the United Kingdom, this chapter of his long-running, often inflammatory career in American politics has come to an abrupt end.