Far-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos alleges he was “swarmed” by Homeland Security agents and repeatedly mistreated ahead of his deportation to the UK last week.
“The first I heard of it was when 15 agents swarmed me at the Louisiana airport, and it didn’t get any less theatrical from there on,” Yiannopoulos said in an interview on Tuesday on Piers Morgan Uncensored.
Yiannopoulos, who rose to fame as an online firebrand championing Donald Trump and his hard-line immigration policies, among other issues, claimed that once he was in detention, he was denied food for a day and moved every few hours to prevent contact with his lawyers.
“This was not a normal, lawful process,” Yiannopoulos said, complaining of experiencing “brutality” and “physically degrading” treatment so severe that agents allegedly “walked off the job.”
“These blatantly FALSE claims from Yiannopoulos are a sad attempt to demonize the same ICE law enforcement officers that he publicly supported until the shoe was on the other foot,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told The Independent in a statement.
“All DHS notices associated with Yiannopoulos’ immigration case were sent to an address he himself provided. Additionally, having work authorization or a pending application in the United States DOES NOT confer legal status,” DHS added. “At no point was Yiannopoulos denied access to medical care, food, or a phone call. While in processing, he claimed good health, traveled with his medications, made a phone call to his spouse, and even declined a meal he was offered. On the way to his removal flight, he was provided a meal and his medications upon request.”
On August 28, ICE deported Milo Yiannopoulos to the United Kingdom, his home country, the department previously told The Independent.
“Yiannopoulos was issued a final order of removal by an Immigration Judge on July 22, after failing to show up for his immigration hearing,” DHS said at the time.
Before his removal from the country, the 41-year-old figure repeatedly demanded aggressive immigration enforcement.
“California needs ICE checkpoints 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,” he wrote on X in June.
When pressed by Morgan over his past comments, which called for sweeping arrests and the “indiscriminate” deportation of Somalis in America, Yiannopoulos called his past remarks “mean-spirited, exaggerated jokes” and said he was “ashamed” of having supported Donald Trump.
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