British provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos spent years supporting aggressive immigration enforcement and picking bitter fights with other figures on the political right. His position changed dramatically after Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him at a Louisiana airport and deported him for overstaying his visa. Yiannopoulos complained that he was treated like an MS-13 gang member and said the experience later left him “weeping like an old woman for an hour.”
Yiannopoulos aired his complaints during a September 1st appearance on “Piers Morgan Uncensored.” ICE officers arrested the former Breitbart editor at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport on August 27th. An immigration judge had issued a final removal order on July 22nd after Yiannopoulos failed to appear for an immigration hearing, and ICE deported him to the United Kingdom the day after his arrest.
“I didn’t really understand the physical reality of how institutionalized the brutality is in America,” Yiannopoulos told Morgan. He described being restrained by his hands and feet before complaining that immigration officers treated every detainee as though he were a dangerous gang member. “Everybody that’s arrested is like an MS-13 gang member, and it hurts a lot more than it looks like on television,” he said.
The Department of Homeland Security presented the arrest as a straightforward case of immigration enforcement. In an official statement, DHS said Yiannopoulos legally entered the United States in May 2019 before choosing to remain in violation of the law. “President Trump and Secretary Noem are working diligently to ensure that aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport,” the department said.
The deportation also followed years of Yiannopoulos launching attacks and becoming embroiled in ugly disputes with other conservative personalities. Trump ally Laura Loomer, who had been locked in a particularly vicious public feud with Yiannopoulos, claimed she repeatedly reported his immigration status to federal authorities. Loomer told The Washington Post that she had contacted ICE, DHS, and the FBI about him since 2024, although DHS did not confirm that her reports prompted the arrest.
Yiannopoulos claimed officers moved him between detention and correctional facilities every few hours in an attempt to remain ahead of his lawyer. He complained that nobody would tell him what was happening and described the process as intentionally confusing. “It was humiliating and it was disorientating and all the rest of it,” he said. “It was physically degrading. It was frightening. I don’t think I’ve ever been frightened like that before.”
Watch Yiannopoulos describe getting deported to Piers Morgan here:
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Morgan then asked Yiannopoulos how emotional he had been since being returned to Britain. Yiannopoulos said he recently tripped and tumbled down some stairs, which triggered memories of allegedly being shoved down steps while in custody. “I was weeping like an old woman for an hour,” he said. Yiannopoulos added that the episode made him reconsider his previous dismissive attitude toward people who complained about lingering trauma.
Yiannopoulos then accused Homan and other parts of the federal government of lying about his case, despite DHS saying that he overstayed his lawful admission and failed to attend his hearing. He argued that he had no reason to risk remaining in the country illegally because he managed lawyers, had potential employers willing to sponsor him, and was married to an American. “I’m a pretty organized and together person when I’m not being silly on Twitter,” he insisted. “There’s no reason I would take a risk like this. I didn’t need to overstay a visa.”
Federal authorities rejected Yiannopoulos’ version of events. According to DHS, he legally entered the United States through New York City in May 2019 but overstayed his lawful admission in violation of federal immigration law. Yiannopoulos subsequently failed to appear for his immigration hearing, prompting an immigration judge to issue a final order of removal on July 22nd. ICE arrested him on August 27th and executed that removal order the following day.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.