BREAKING: Alien Overstay under Final Order Deported!

On August 28, DHS announced that “Milo Yiannopoulos, an illegal alien from the United Kingdom” was arrested at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and was thereafter quickly deported. Plainly, he lacked respect for our immigration laws, but he is just one of tens of thousands of aliens each month who have failed to show up in immigration court as required, an increasing number of whom are being caught up in immigration enforcement when they attempt to take to the skies.

“British Far-Right Provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos Deported by ICE”

If you are unfamiliar with Yiannopoulos’s oeuvre — admittedly I’m only aware of it in passing — the Washington Post helped fill in some details with its August 29 article, “British far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos deported by ICE”.

As per the outlet, he “became a highly controversial figure in American politics” and worked for a while for Breitbart, but:

was never accepted as a mainstream conservative figure, given his frequent misogynistic comments, associations with white supremacists and antisemites, and a history of other controversial remarks, such as saying a romantic relationship between a 13-year-old boy and an adult could be consensual — the latter costing him book and speaking opportunities.

Hardly someone the late William F. Buckley, founder of the periodical National Review, host of PBS’s “Firing Line”, and as per that outlet “widely considered one of the architects of the modern conservative movement who influenced generations of politicians, including Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater” would share a stage with, let alone recognize as a political kinsman.

The DHS Tweet

In any event, DHS didn’t arrest and deport Yiannopoulos for his views — as extreme as they apparently were — but for a much more prosaic reason: He was here illegally, and under a final order of removal that was entered when he failed to show up for court.

As the department tweeted on August 28:

Visa Waiver?

That all still leaves a lot of blanks unfilled in this case, the first one being how he “legally entered” this country in May 2019.

The United Kingdom is designated as a “visa waiver” country under section 217 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), and that status waives the requirement in section 212(a)(7)(B)(ii) of the INA that nonimmigrant temporary visitors for business (“B-1”) or tourism (“B-2”) from that country possess such visas at the time of entry to be admitted.

Aliens are generally only admitted under the “Visa Waiver Program” (VWP), however, for stays of up to 90 days, meaning that if Yiannopoulos was admitted in that status in 2019 — roughly seven years ago — he’s been here illegally for a long time.

Such aliens must also waive their right to a removal hearing before they can be deported under section 240 of the INA, but as I explained last September, even if they overstay they “can make applications for asylum and related protections in ‘asylum only’ proceedings before IJs under 8 C.F.R. § 1208.2(c)(1)”.

Note it’s permissible for an alien to come to this country as a B-1 visitor for business to “consult with business associates”, “participate in scientific, educational, professional, or business conventions, conferences, or seminars”, and “undertake independent research”, (you can also come to be a “yacht crewman”, an activity Buckley would have supported), and potentially Yiannopoulos claimed he fit under those standards if he was admitted under the VWP.

Again, however, he could only have done so for a legal admission up to 90 days, but he potentially might have extended that period by claiming he’d be persecuted if returned to Old Blighty.

Having argued against a number of VWP asylum claims when I was a trial attorney at the former INS, I can assure you visa-waiver nationals make some “interesting” ones (one of Yiannopoulos’s fellow countrymen complained he received too many parking tickets in London), but that this is an option for VWP nationals is something Congress may want to address.

Nonimmigrant “I-1” or “O-1” Visa?

That said, nothing requires UK nationals to utilize the VWP for temporary visits to the United States, and the most common option for “Members of the Foreign Media, Press, and Radio” is the “I Visa”, under section 101(a)(15)(I) of the INA.

It would take a person with much more extensive exposure to Yiannopoulos’s body of work to explain whether he would qualify for that nonimmigrant visa, or alternatively for an “O visa”, which can be issued to an:

individual who possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, or who has a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and has been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements.

While admissions under “I visas” were traditionally issued for the “duration” of nonimmigrants’ status in this country, DHS recently announced it would be limiting such admissions to 240 days, or the time needed for an assignment, whichever is shorter, but with possible unlimited extensions.

The initial period for an O-1 admission, on the other hand, is three years, with possible one-year extensions.

If Yiannopoulos entered under one of those nonimmigrant categories and the term of his admission had expired or he otherwise violated the terms of his nonimmigrant admission, DHS could have placed him into removal proceedings and charged him with deportability under section 237(a)(1)(C) of the INA.

Or, if his nonimmigrant I-1 or O-1 visa was revoked, he would have been charged with removability under section 237(a)(1)(B) of the act.

Absent some evidence of the status under which he was admitted to the country, however, all of this is speculation, and offered for explanatory purposes only.

Hundreds of Thousands of In Absentia Removal Orders — in FY 2026 Alone

What is clear from the DHS tweet is that Yiannopoulos was quickly deported from the United States because he failed to show up in immigration court on July 22, and as a consequence a final removal order was entered against him in absentia.

He would be far from alone in that regard, because according to DOJ statistics, an average of more than 31,000 aliens failed to appear as required in the nation’s 72 immigration courts and three adjudication centers per month in FY 2026 through the end of June — nearly 282,000 in total over that nine-month period.

That’s on top of an additional 311,000 other “respondents” who skipped immigration court last year.

The bare minimum that the American people deserve from the tens of millions of aliens admitted to this country annually as nonimmigrants and the million or so immigrants who enter with or receive green cards annually is for them to appear in immigration court when DHS charges them with removability.

“Immigration Agents Are Using Air Passenger Data for Deportation Effort”

And yet, for tens of thousands of aliens each month, appearing as directed before an immigration judge is either too great a bother or doesn’t fit in with their respective agendas — in most cases, to disappear into our open society.

That means that ICE must hit the streets to find them after they have been ordered removed, though some (like Yiannopoulos apparently) make immigration officers’ jobs a lot easier by booking flights and then heading to U.S. airports.

That flight data goes directly to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which then shares passenger data with ICE, its sister agency in DHS, to target aliens for arrest.

As Scott Mechkowski, the former deputy head of the ICE office in New York City, has explained:

The administration has turned routine travel into a force multiplier for removals, potentially identifying thousands who thought they could evade the law simply by boarding a plane . ... This isn’t about fear; it’s about restoring order and ensuring every American knows their government enforces its laws without apology.

Given that the New York Times and any number of immigration law firms have highlighted this practice, it’s a little unclear why Yiannopoulos didn’t think it would happen to him.

Nothing Exceptional Except for the Target

Aside from the purportedly outré opinions of the target, there’s little exceptional about ICE’s arrest and deportation of Milo Yiannopoulos, an alien under a final removal order, at a U.S. airport. And that’s how it should be. Play stupid immigration games, win a free trip back home.