The Department of Homeland Security announced Friday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested conservative political pundit Milo Yiannopoulos for overstaying his visa and that the British commentator will soon be deported from the United States back to Britain.

Federal agents took Yiannopoulos, a former Breitbart News editor, into custody Thursday at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Kenner, Louisiana. Yiannopoulos legally entered the U.S. on May 14, 2019, then overstayed his visa. A federal immigration judge issued a final deportation order against him on July 22 after he failed to appear at the hearing. The British national remains in ICE custody pending removal to England.

"Being in detention is a choice. We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the CBP [Customs and Border Protection] Home App," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement. "The United States is offering illegal aliens $3,000 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return."

Yiannopoulos spent a decade as one of President Donald Trump's most ardent supporters. The pundit's run at Breitbart News ended in February 2017, when he resigned after livestream comments surfaced in which he appeared to condone sexual relationships between young boys and older men.

Yiannopoulos later interned for then-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and worked with the superstar rapper Ye, formerly Kanye West, as his personal assistant. Ye is scheduled to perform at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Friday night; it is unclear whether Yiannopoulos was in the state for the show. As recently as 2025, Yiannopoulos posted that California needed ICE checkpoints at supermarkets and "on the spot deportation for anyone who can't prove they are in the US legally."

Laura Loomer, who has feuded with Yiannopoulos for years, applauded the arrest, writing that she "was the first person to report on the fact that Milo was in the US illegally."

Now the man who built a brand on hardline immigration politics is on the other side of the enforcement machine and facing deportation to the United Kingdom.