Milo Yiannopoulos says he was ‘terrified’ by the ‘brutality’ of his ICE deportation

Yiannopoulos is pictured after his arrest, in a mugshot dated August 28. (Credit: Department of Homeland Security via CNN Newsource)

Far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has told TV interviewer Piers Morgan that he was “really, really terrified” after being detained by U.S. immigration officials.

Speaking to Morgan during an interview released on YouTube on Tuesday, British national Yiannopoulos, 41, recounted how his hands and feet were chained together with manacles.

“It hurts a lot more than it looks like on television,” he said.

“I didn’t really understand the physical reality of how institutionalized the brutality is in America,” Yiannopoulos said.

Yiannopoulos was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a Louisiana airport on Thursday after overstaying his visa, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said. He was then sent to an ICE facility before being deported to the United Kingdom the next day.

Yiannopoulos called the experience “humiliating,” “disorienting” and “physically degrading” in his interview with Morgan.

“It was frightening, and I don’t think I’ve ever been frightened like that before,” he added.

Born in England, Yiannopoulos had been employed in the U.S. and appeared regularly at public speaking events across the country since at least 2015. While in the U.S., he built a career as a conservative firebrand who leaned into controversy through his writing for the far-right website Breitbart News, speeches and online presence.

He was an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump during his U.S. presidential campaign in 2016 and positioned himself as one of Trump’s passionate advocates, sometimes jokingly referring to the U.S. President as “Daddy.”

And Yiannopoulos, who entered the U.S. legally on May 14, 2019, according to the DHS, has frequently called for aggressive immigration enforcement in posts on his X account over the past year.

“There is one concrete thing we must insist on this administration delivering,” Yiannopoulos said in a June 2025 X post. “We have got to deport millions and millions and millions of people. Without that, nothing else matters.”

However, Yiannopoulos told Morgan that he is “very ashamed” of having supported Trump, and questioned the effectiveness of the administration’s deportation drive.

“ICE is supposed to be deporting criminals,” he said. “And they’re not doing that.”

He also hinted at a newfound compassion for those affected by ICE operations.

“I think maybe, in the past, I’ve been a little bit blase when people talked about their trauma,” he said. “But I get it now, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”