On Joe Rogan in 2016 he carved out one exception: “handsome, charming, successful, blonde-haired British immigrants.” He didn’t make the cut.
Milo Yiannopoulos, the far-right provocateur who once called for ICE checkpoints to carry out “on the spot” deportations of anyone in the country illegally, was himself deported on August 28. It’s a near-perfect closing of the loop: the loudest cheerleader for aggressive immigration enforcement removed by the very agency he championed.
DHS told USA TODAY that ICE sent Yiannopoulos, “an illegal alien from the United Kingdom, back to his home country.” Agents arrested him a day earlier at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Kenner, Louisiana. He had entered the US legally through New York on May 14, 2019, and, in the department’s words, “chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws.” An immigration judge issued a final order of removal on July 22 after he failed to show up for his hearing.
The political backdrop is messier than the paperwork. Laura Loomer, a former ally turned enemy, had been publicly calling him an illegal overstayer since late 2024 and says she reported him to ICE, DHS, and the FBI. After the arrest she claimed credit on X, posting “Loomered.” The Telegraph, citing senior US sources, reported that his visa status “was brought to attention after he fell out of favour with senior officials over his increasingly hostile remarks” — including a recent appearance on Candace Owens’s show, where he called Trump “bought, paid for, owned and operated” by Israel.
The department leaned into the irony, posting his mugshot and using the arrest to promote its self-deportation offer of $3,000 and a free flight home.
The fall is a long way from where he started. Yiannopoulos built his name as a right-wing commentator before the first Trump administration, writing for Breitbart News and touring college campuses where he attacked feminism, Islam, Black Lives Matter, and transgender people.
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