US deports right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos

Washington (United States) (AFP) - Right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported to his home country of Britain, the US government said Saturday.

Yiannopoulos, an early supporter of Donald Trump who has voiced support for the president's immigration crackdown, has largely fallen out with the Trump movement.

He was arrested Thursday at New Orleans International Airport and deported the following day by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to AFP.

After arriving in the United States in 2019 and overstaying his visa, he was issued a final order of removal in July "after failing to show up for his immigration hearing," the department said.

The 41-year-old entered the public eye a decade ago, casting himself as a gay crusader for free speech and an enemy of "political correctness," but was widely accused of being racist and misogynistic.

He wrote for the right-wing US news outlet Breitbart News and backed Trump during the 2016 election campaign but has more recently been critical of the US leader.

Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer hailed his arrest, boasting on X that she was "the first person to report on the fact that Milo was in the US illegally where he incited violence against President Trump."

ICE is tasked with carrying out Donald Trump's anti-immigration crackdown, and many Americans consider its methods brutal. Federal agents shot dead two American citizens in January as they protested anti-immigrant enforcement raids in Minneapolis.

In September 2025, Yiannopoulos posted on X: "Total legal immunity for ICE agents when they're on duty."

(c) 2026 AFP