Controversial right-wing political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, a British national long based in the United States, has been listed in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention records, according to recent data checks of the agency’s inmate registry.
The 41-year-old commentator, who previously served as an editor for conservative outlet Breitbart News and briefly worked with American rapper Kanye West, is currently believed to be held in a Louisiana detention facility, based on publicly searchable ICE detainee data. A self-described provocateur who has styled himself as the “most fabulous supervillain on the internet,” Yiannopoulos has long faced fierce condemnation from critics who label him a spreader of harmful hate speech targeting marginalized groups.
As of press time, neither ICE representatives nor Yiannopoulos himself have responded to requests for comment from the BBC. A nationwide search of the agency’s detainee database confirms that a detainee matching Yiannopoulos’ name and British nationality is currently in ICE custody, though the exact reasons and specific circumstances surrounding his detention remain unconfirmed and undisclosed to the public.
Raised in Kent, in southern England, Yiannopoulos has resided in the U.S. for many years and became a polarizing public figure during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when he emerged as an early high-profile backer of Donald Trump. He even headlined a “Gays for Trump” rally during that year’s Republican National Convention and repeatedly supported Trump’s calls for stricter U.S. immigration policies. Despite his early alliance with the Trump movement, the pair had a very public falling out. While Yiannopoulos still claims to back parts of Trump’s policy agenda, he posted a critical statement on social media platform X back in March of this year claiming that Trump “has lost his way, bought off by foreign interests.”
Yiannopoulos has drawn widespread backlash for years over incendiary remarks targeting transgender people, Muslim communities, the Black Lives Matter movement, feminists, and even LGBTQ+ groups — a notable controversy given that he previously identified as gay, and now describes himself as “ex-gay.” Some of his most infamous provocative columns include pieces titled “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy” and “Would You Rather Your Child Had Feminism or Cancer?”
One of the most serious scandals of his career came in 2017, when he was disinvited from speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) — a major annual gathering of U.S. conservatives that has repeatedly hosted Trump — after video surfaced of comments that appeared to condone pedophilia. Shortly after the incident, Yiannopoulos issued an apology and resigned from his position at Breitbart. He has repeatedly pushed back against the accusations, arguing his remarks were describing his own personal experiences of abuse as a child, rather than endorsing the act.
For years, Yiannopoulos has been publicly associated with the alt-right, a loose ideological movement defined by its opposition to mainstream political correctness and feminism that includes outspoken factions of neo-Nazis and white supremacists. While he has stated he does not consider himself an official member of the alt-right, he has previously described the movement as “energising and exciting.”