Milo Yiannopoulos, a controversy-baiting internet personality who once vehemently backed President Donald Trump, has been deported to the United Kingdom, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said on Saturday.
Yiannopoulos was arrested by ICE at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport on Friday after officials said he failed to show up for an immigration hearing in July.
DHS said that a final removal order was issued by an immigration judge on July 22.
ICE agents are increasingly making immigration-related arrests at airports.
Yiannopoulos, a self-described libertarian who was an early supporter of Trump’s political career, has worked with other MAGA-aligned figures and conspiracy theorists like Ye, formerly Kanye West, since his public parting from Trump’s inner circle.
Ye, who has come under fire in recent years for a series of antisemitic statements, performed at the New Orleans Caesars Superdome on Friday evening.
It is not clear whether Yiannopoulos was in New Orleans for the concert.
Yiannopoulos served as a tech editor at Breitbart, a conservative website, until February 2017, according the site.
Yiannopoulos resigned at that time following backlash over comments he’d made suggesting he supported certain adult relationships with children. In those comments, the openly gay agitator discussed the value of “cross-generational relationships.”
“And I think particularly in the gay world, and outside the Catholic Church — if that’s where some of you want to go with this — I think in the gay world some of the most important, enriching and incredibly life-affirming, important shaping relationships very often between younger boys and older men,” Yiannopoulos said in a past video clip.
“They can be hugely positive experiences.”
He also remarked that sexual abuse is “not the worst thing that’s ever going to happen to you ... going bankrupt is worse.”
Yiannopoulos was disinvited from speaking at a Conservative Political Action Conference around that time in the wake of those inflammatory remarks.
He later apologized and said he didn’t advocate for illegal behavior. He said he was sexually abused himself as a teen by two older men.
The Trump administration on Friday publicized Yiannopoulos’ arrest to help promote its voluntary deportation program. DHS is offering undocumented immigrants $3,000 and a free flight home for self-deportation.
“Being in detention is a choice,” DHS wrote on X, above Yiannopoulos’ haggard-looking mug shot. “We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the [Customs and Border Patrol] Home App.”
Conspiracy-peddler Laura Loomer, who is close to Trump and who has claimed responsibility for a number of firings and criminal investigations, took credit for reporting Yiannopoulos to ICE in a social media post.
