‘Really terrified’: Milo Yiannopoulos speaks out after deportation from US

Far-right British commentator Milo Yiannopoulos. This person once embraced United States President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown, has created his first public remarks after his US arrest and deportation.

Key points

• In December 2024, for instance, Yiannopoulos pressed "zero immigration for the next 20 years".
• She additionally pointed to Yiannopoulos's work with former US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, another Trump supporter-turned-critic.
• White House border tsar Tom Homan echoed that assertion in an interview with CNN on Sunday, saying it was Yiannopoulos's fault he was deported.
• Yiannopoulos was arrested by US federal agents after arriving at the airport in New Orleans, Louisiana, last Thursday.
• But afterwards, Yiannopoulos overstayed his visa, according to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

In an interview published on Tuesday, Yiannopoulos spoke to host Piers Morgan concerning his experience, telling the interviewer that he now knows what it's like to be "really, really terrified".

"I didn't really understand the physical reality of how institutionalised the brutality is in America, " Yiannopoulos remarked.

As he described having his hands and feet chained together while in custody, he criticised immigration authorities for treating ordinary detainees like criminals.

"Everybody arrested is like an MS-13 gang member, and it hurts a lot more than it looks like on television, " he remarked of the manacles he was forced to wear.

Yiannopoulos was arrested by US federal agents after arriving at the airport in New Orleans, Louisiana, last Thursday. The 41-year-old conservative firebrand was subsequently sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in a process he called "humiliating" and "disorienting".

"It was frightening, and I don't think I've ever been frightened like that before, " Yiannopoulos remarked. Yiannopoulos allegedly entered the US legally on May 14, 2019.

But afterwards, Yiannopoulos overstayed his visa, according to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It asserted Yiannopoulos was issued a deportation order in July after he missed a scheduled immigration hearing.

"He was ordered to appear in immigration court. He didn't show up. The judge ordered him deported, " Homan informed CNN's Dana Bash. "He had his due process order removed by a federal judge, and I removed him. It's that simple."

In his interview with Morgan, Yiannopoulos asserted Homan was lying and suggested that his shifting politics could have been a factor in his deportation.

"I don't really do, you know, the right-wing provocateur thing any more. I manage lawyers for a living. You know, I'm an organised and together person when, you know, I'm not being silly on Twitter, " Yiannopoulos remarked.

"And I'm married to an American. There's no reason I would take a risk like this. I didn't need to overstay a visa." A 'cancelled' green card.

Yiannopoulos informed Morgan that after he secured married in 2017, he filed for an "adjustment of status" that allowed him to switch from a visa to a green card. It allows lawful permanent residency in the US.

But the US cancelled his green card, Yiannopoulos remarked, without offering proof.

He additionally maintained that notices informing him of the change were deliberately sent to an old address so he would be removed from the country.

"The administration knew I wasn't there. The administration knew I wasn't getting these things. It knew that I had no idea what was happening, and they did this anyway, " Yiannopoulos remarked.

Yiannopoulos pledged he would fight his "unjust" deportation in court, calling the process "unlawful".

"It's quite obvious that the government has maliciously and deviously, in a very underhanded way, created a scenario in which they could scoop me up and eject me to make an example out of me, " he remarked.

Al Jazeera reached out to ICE and DHS for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Previously, Yiannopoulos was known for being a vocal Trump supporter. He even expressed enthusiasm for the mass deportation campaign and immigration restrictions Trump pursued upon winning a second term in office.

In June 2025, he additionally wrote that there should be immigration checkpoints in California, "at supermarket entrances, gas stations, strip malls, intersections and government buildings, with on the spot deportation for anyone who can't prove they are in the US legally".

But in Tuesday's interview, Yiannopoulos remarked he was "ashamed" to have backed the US president.

He additionally expressed scepticism concerning Trump's claims to be deporting the "worst of the worst", pointing out that immigrants without criminal records were being swept up in the immigration raids.

"If ICE were doing its job and clearing America out of the people who rape, kill, murder, and sell drugs – and a couple of extra people got caught up in the dragnet, and if I was one of them – nobody would have very much to say, " Yiannopoulos remarked. "But they're not doing that."

Yiannopoulos informed Morgan that his experience being detained provided him a new perspective on the criminal justice system.

"I think maybe, in the past, I've been a little bit blase when people talked about their trauma, " he remarked. "But I get it now, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone." Feud with Laura Loomer.

Yiannopoulos's deportation from the US comes after a years-long public feud with close Trump ally Laura Loomer. After news of his detention surfaced, Loomer appeared to take credit.

"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 on X. "When Milo called for me to be assassinated, I reported him to ICE and FBI."

When asked regarding what role Loomer may have played in his deportation, Yiannapoulos stated she "is more of a danger to themselves than to others".

He additionally repeated questions he has produced previously regarding her mental health.

"I find it difficult in a way to hold anything against her, because I don't think she's well, " he remarked. "And whenever the Laura Loomer show comes crashing down, as I'm sure it will any moment, I think she's going to need a lot of prayer."

In short, 'Really terrified': Milo Yiannopoulos speaks out after deportation from US is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.