MAGA eats one of its own as ICE detains right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos

The Trump administration’s immigration dragnet has caught one of MAGA’s provocateurs, who last year asked, “What are they waiting for?" regarding the president’s mass deportation program’s start.

Milo Yiannopoulos, the "ex-gay" British far-right personality who entered the orbits of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ye (formerly Kanye West) after building a career on outrage, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a Louisiana airport Friday, TMZ first reported.

Agents apprehended Yiannopoulos, 41, where rapper Ye was performing Friday at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome. ICE’s detainee database lists Yiannopoulos in custody, but it does not list where he is being held.

Yiannopoulos legally entered the United States through New York City on May 14, 2019, but “chose to overstay his welcome,” DHS said. An immigration judge issued a final removal order July 22 after Yiannopoulos failed to appear for his immigration hearing, the department said.

“He will remain in ICE custody pending removal,” DHS wrote on X.

The department used its confirmation to promote the CBP Home app, through which the Trump administration is offering undocumented immigrants $3,000 and a free flight to leave the country voluntarily.

“Being in detention is a choice,” DHS wrote, before warning that people who do not self-deport “will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”

Yiannopoulos's arrest is ironic given his outspoken support for the draconian deportation program that has featured masked agents chasing people through neighborhoods and on several occasions shooting and killing American citizens.

On January 25, 2025, five days after Trump's second inauguration, Yiannopoulos wrote on X, "If ICE has 90,000 employees, and all we are asking for is 10,000 deportations a day, that’s 9 agents per illegal. More than enough to cover investigation, apprehension and removal. What are they all waiting for?"

Far-right activist and Trump ally Laura Loomer quickly claimed credit for the arrest on X.

“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 wrote. “Recently, Candace Owens invited this illegal alien into her home. When Milo called for me to be assassinated, I reported him to ICE and the FBI. I told you all that Milo was an illegal alien.”

Related: Who is Laura Loomer, the MAGA Republican influencing Donald Trump, considered too racist even for Marjorie Taylor Greene?

Loomer said Yiannopoulos would be deported to the United Kingdom “where he can live among the Muslims he has recently chosen to embrace,” adding, “Today is a great day for America.”

ICE has not publicly announced plans to deport him.

Born in England, Yiannopoulos became notorious as a Breitbart News editor and avatar of the alt-right. He attacked transgender people, feminists, Muslims and racial justice activists while presenting himself as proof that an openly gay man could thrive on the reactionary right.

That career cratered in 2017 after recordings surfaced in which he defended sexual relationships between adult men and teenage boys. As The Advocate reported, the fallout cost him a Conservative Political Action Conference appearance, a Simon & Schuster book deal and eventually his Breitbart position. Yiannopoulos denied supporting pedophilia and said his remarks were misunderstood.

In 2021, The Advocate reported that he declared himself “ex-gay,” compared homosexuality to addiction and promoted conversion therapy, a discredited and harmful practice.

He later interned for Greene and became political operations director for Ye’s abortive 2024 presidential campaign. Yiannopoulos arranged Ye’s Mar-a-Lago dinner with President Donald Trump and white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a statement from the Department of Homeland Security.