British political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump, has been taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to agency records.
At 41, Yiannopoulos, formerly an editor of the right‑leaning Breitbart website and a associate of rapper Kanye West, is believed to be detained in Louisiana, based on ICE’s inmate registry search.
The self‑styled provocateur describes himself as the “most flamboyant supervillain on the internet,” while critics characterize him as a disseminator of hate speech.
Neither ICE nor Yiannopoulos has responded to the BBC’s request for comment, yet his name and British background appear in nationwide detainee searches.
He was an early backer of Trump during the 2016 election, headlining the “Gays for Trump” event at the Republican National Convention, and has advocated for stricter U.S. immigration policies.
“Total legal immunity for ICE agents while on duty,” he wrote on X last year.
Yiannopoulos has faced extensive criticism for remarks about transgender individuals, Muslims, Black Lives Matter supporters, feminists and gay people, despite having identified as gay himself; he now identifies as an “ex‑gay.”
He has authored columns such as “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy” and “Would You Rather Your Child Had Feminism or Cancer?”
In 2017, Yiannopoulos was uninvited from speaking at CPAC, a U.S. conservative conference that also featured Trump, after footage surfaced suggesting he condoned pedophilia; he later apologized and resigned from Breitbart.
He denied the allegations, stating that his remarks reflected his own childhood experiences.
Yiannopoulos is frequently linked to the alt‑right, a loose, nationalist movement that rejects political correctness and feminism and includes neo‑Nazis and white supremacists.
He maintains that he is not a member of the alt‑right, though he has described the movement as “energising and exciting.”
