Milo Yiannopoulos, a Right-Wing Provocateur, Is Arrested by ICE

 

Milo Yiannopoulos, a Right-Wing Provocateur, Is Arrested by ICE

 

Mr. Yiannopoulos, a prominent early supporter of President Trump, was detained at the New Orleans airport. The Trump administration publicized his arrest and shared a mug shot.

 

Milo Yiannopoulos at a rally in Baltimore in 2021.Credit...Julio Cortez/Associated Press

By Chris Cameron Hamed Aleaziz and Ken Bensinger

Chris Cameron and Hamed Aleaziz reported from Washington. Ken Bensinger reported from Los Angeles.

Aug. 28, 2026

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/us/politics/milo-yiannopoulos-arrested-ice.html

 

The Trump administration said on Friday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers had arrested Milo Yiannopoulos, the prominent right-wing agitator and early supporter of President Trump, at the New Orleans airport.

Public ICE detention records confirmed that Mr. Yiannopoulos was in custody, but did not say where he was being held. The Homeland Security Department said that Mr. Yiannopoulos had overstayed his visa and was issued a final deportation order in July. That order means Mr. Yiannopoulos faces possible removal from the country.

The Homeland Security Department publicized Mr. Yiannopoulos’s arrest, circulating an unflattering mug shot and warning other immigrants to “take control of their departure” by self-deporting.

The arrest follows the Trump administration’s efforts targeting foreign citizens as they travel through airports, a tactic that opened a vast pool of people for deportation. Immigration agents in plain clothes have in recent months whisked away targets at check-in counters and arrival gates with the help of information provided by airlines to the Transportation Security Administration.

Mr. Yiannopoulos is a British citizen who has lived in the United States since 2015, when he entered the country to join the staff of Breitbart News using a nonimmigrant visa reserved for people with “extraordinary ability.” He did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Mr. Yiannopoulos was a prominent supporter of Donald J. Trump during his 2016 run for president. In addition to his work at Breitbart, Mr. Yiannopoulos was briefly offered a speaking slot at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, a pre-eminent platform for the American right, in 2017.

But Mr. Yiannopoulos abruptly fell from grace after the publication of a video in which he condoned sexual relations with boys as young as 13 and laughed off the seriousness of pedophilia by Roman Catholic priests. The organizers of CPAC rescinded their invitation, and he resigned from Breitbart under scrutiny for his remarks.

An acid-tongued provocateur who is no stranger to controversy, Mr. Yiannopoulos was banned from the site then known as Twitter in 2016 for leading a harassment campaign against a Black actress. His account was reinstated in 2022 by Elon Musk, who purchased the platform and later renamed it X.

More recently, Mr. Yiannopoulos made headlines for serving as a temporary staffer for Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former Republican representative, and for working for the fashion brand of Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.

 

In 2022 he claimed credit for organizing a notorious dinner for Mr. Trump and Mr. West that also included the white supremacist Nick Fuentes. (Mr. Yiannopoulos claimed the meeting was an ambush, meant to “make Trump’s life miserable.”) Two years later, Mr. Yiannopoulos joined Mr. West’s exploratory campaign for president.

Mr. Yiannopoulos, who was openly gay and often said he was attracted to Mr. Trump, announced in 2017 that he had been married to a man who is a U.S. citizen, but never revealed the full identity of that person. He later claimed that he was “ex-gay,” and had “demoted” his husband to the role of “housemate.”

He has been a particular target of Laura Loomer, the right-wing activist who frequently speaks to Mr. Trump. The two were once close allies, with Mr. Yiannopoulos supporting her unsuccessful run for Congress in 2020, but had a public falling out.

Since late 2024, Ms. Loomer has been calling for him to be deported, claiming that he was in the country on an expired visa.

In a phone call on Friday, Ms. Loomer took credit for the arrest, saying that she had long ago notified Department of Homeland Security of potential issues with Mr. Yiannopoulos’s immigration status.

“Loomered!” she said, using a term she applies to the growing collection of people who have been fired, deported or otherwise reprimanded by the Trump administration after her specific calls for action. “I have been saying this should happen for a long time and now it did.”

Other prominent figures on the right were quick to celebrate the news. “Deport immediately,” Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, wrote on X. “Good riddance.”

Mr. Yiannopoulos himself had reveled in Mr. Trump’s mass deportations, calling for ICE checkpoints at supermarkets and gas stations and “total legal immunity for ICE agents when they’re on duty.”

Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.

Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy for The Times.

Ken Bensinger covers media and politics for The Times.