British hard-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos deported back to UK

The hard-right British provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported from the US to the UK after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Yiannopoulos, 41, a former close associate of the rapper Kanye West, was returned to Britain on Friday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed.

He was arrested on Thursday at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Louisiana, where West was due to perform on Friday night in New Orleans.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told The Times that Yiannopoulos was an "illegal alien" from the United Kingdom who legally entered the country in May 2019 through New York. However, he "chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation's laws", the spokesperson said.

He was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on July 22, after failing to show up for his immigration hearing, according to the spokesperson.

Yiannopoulos was an early supporter of Trump. In 2016, he spoke at the "Gays for Trump" event at the Republican National Convention. He now calls himself an "ex-gay". He later turned against the president to become a vocal critic, claiming Trump "sacrificed his honour and his integrity" over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Laura Loomer, a pro-Trump influencer, claimed she tipped off the authorities that he was in the country illegally, leading to his 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," Loomer posted on X, referring to the former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is also a former Trump supporter turned critic.

Loomer did not specify what she meant by an inciting of violence. Yiannopoulos has criticised Trump publicly in the past.

"When Milo called for me to be assassinated, I reported him to ICE and the FBI," Loomer claimed.

"Milo is going to be deported back to the UK where he can live among the Muslims he has recently chosen to embrace. Today is a great day for America."

Yiannopoulos began life in Britain, where he was brought up Kent and expelled from the University of Cambridge before gaining notoriety in the US as a writer and editor of the far-right Breitbart News.

In 2017, he was been slated to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) but was dropped from the schedule after footage emerged in which he appeared to condone paedophilia. He denied the allegations and resigned from Breitbart.

He earned bans from Twitter and Facebook for racist and offensive comments, although Elon Musk reinstated him after taking over Twitter and renaming it X.

Yiannopoulos has publicly supported ICE and the Trump administration's deportation stance in the past. "Total legal immunity for ICE agents when they're on duty," he posted on X last September.

Last June, he also wrote in a social media post: "There is one concrete thing we must insist on this administration delivering. It matters a lot more than debts measured in imaginary money. We have got to deport millions and millions and millions of people. Without that, nothing else matters."

He described his turn against Trump in a March social media post. "I was there when the president came down the golden elevator. I campaigned for him for years. But I am faithful to the mission, not the man. Trump has lost his way, bought off by foreign interests. Those of us who made him what he is have a duty now to unmake him. And we will," he wrote.

Yiannopoulos worked as the chief of staff for Yeezy, the clothing company owned by Kanye West, now known as Ye, from 2022 until 2024. He served as his director of political operations during Ye's 2024 presidential campaign.