EDITORIAL NOTE
This is commentary based on reporting from Reuters, The Associated Press and Reason, along with statements from the Department of Homeland Security. DHS says Milo Yiannopoulos entered the United States legally in 2019, overstayed, missed an immigration hearing and was subsequently ordered removed by an immigration judge. Yiannopoulos hadn’t publicly responded to the allegations as of Friday evening, and it wasn’t clear whether he’d obtained an attorney. Sources: Reuters · Associated Press
There are moments when the universe makes a joke so fucking perfect that trying to improve it would only ruin the timing. Milo Yiannopoulos, the British far-right provocateur who spent years demanding a merciless American immigration crackdown, is now sitting in ICE custody awaiting removal from the United States. The man wanted immigration enforcement with fewer brakes, fewer excuses and considerably less sympathy. Then somebody apparently looked at his paperwork. Sources: Reuters · Associated Press
ICE arrested Yiannopoulos Thursday at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Louisiana. DHS says he legally entered the United States through New York on May 14, 2019, but later overstayed and failed to appear for an immigration hearing. An immigration judge issued a final removal order on July 22, and DHS says he’ll remain in custody pending removal. That’s a remarkably tidy chain of events for a man who’s spent years arguing that immigration enforcement hasn’t been nearly ruthless enough. Sources: Reuters · Associated Press
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Ordinarily, this would be a fairly routine immigration story involving a foreign national who apparently ran afoul of the rules governing his stay. Milo, however, spent years making sure there’d be absolutely nothing routine about this particular moment. He’s been one of the loudest advocates for treating immigration enforcement less like a legal process and more like a fucking cattle roundup. That makes the arrival of ICE at his own doorstep considerably more interesting.
Last year, Yiannopoulos called for ICE checkpoints at supermarket entrances, gas stations, strip malls, intersections and government buildings in California. His proposed finishing touch was deportation on the spot for people who couldn’t prove legal residency. The beauty of that system, presumably, was that Milo always imagined himself standing comfortably on the other side of the checkpoint watching somebody else get hauled away. It’s amazing how uncomplicated government power looks when you’re certain you’re never going to be underneath it. Source: Reason
He also declared, “Zero immigration for the next 20 years. No ifs, no buts,” according to the Associated Press. Elsewhere, he’d argued that the United States needed to deport millions upon millions of people because nothing else mattered without that. This wasn’t a guy reluctantly accepting immigration enforcement as an unfortunate necessity. He was practically standing outside ICE headquarters shaking pompoms. Sources: Associated Press · Reason
And that’s where this stops being merely funny, because Milo’s hardly the first person to fall in love with government power while assuming the government will always use it against somebody he dislikes. That’s one of the oldest scams in politics. Give the state enormous authority, strip away annoying little inconveniences such as restraint and discretion, then convince yourself that you and your friends will always be standing behind the guy holding the club. History has repeatedly demonstrated that the club doesn’t sign loyalty agreements.
Yiannopoulos actually supplied the perfect explanation of his own thinking years ago during an appearance with Joe Rogan. Talking about immigration, he distinguished the people he wanted thrown out from people like himself, the charming British immigrant who apparently belonged here because, well, he was Milo. The rules were supposed to be merciless right up until the moment those rules encountered someone important enough to deserve an exception. Apparently the immigration system forgot to check the guest list. Source: Reason
That’s the part of hard-line immigration politics its loudest cheerleaders rarely advertise. “Enforce the law” sounds wonderfully simple until laws collide with paperwork mistakes, missed hearings, asylum claims, families, employers, long-established lives, conflicting records, and actual human beings. Suddenly everybody discovers that due process wasn’t invented because lawyers needed something to do between lunch and golf. It exists because government gets awfully fucking dangerous when nobody has to stop and explain what it’s doing.
Now Milo gets his turn inside that machinery, and I don’t know whether he’s got some legal argument that could delay or reverse his removal. Neither does anybody casually celebrating his detention on social media. He should get whatever process the law permits, be able to obtain representation, and be treated humanely while he’s detained. I believe that for exactly the same reason I believe it when the person in ICE custody isn’t an asshole who spent years fantasizing about everybody else’s deportation.
That’s the difference between having principles and wearing a team jersey. Rights worth defending don’t disappear because the person standing on them makes your skin crawl. If your belief in due process lasts only until somebody you hate needs it, you don’t actually believe in due process. You’ve just got a list of people you think should qualify.
None of that means we’ve got to pretend the irony isn’t magnificent. Yiannopoulos wanted ICE agents stationed outside supermarkets checking whether strangers had the right to remain in the country. He wanted people who couldn’t establish their legal status deported immediately. He wanted immigration enforcement stripped of the compassion, discretion and procedural patience he may now discover are remarkably attractive qualities when you’re the one waiting to find out where the government plans to send you. Source: Reason
There’s also something wonderfully revealing about what happened immediately afterward. Far-right activist Laura Loomer, who’s feuded with Yiannopoulos for years, celebrated his arrest and claimed she’d previously reported his immigration status to authorities. Whether anything Loomer did actually led to his arrest hasn’t been established, and taking her claim at face value would require a level of optimism I don’t currently possess. Still, watching MAGA personalities use immigration enforcement against one another like neighbors calling code enforcement over a crooked fence tells you plenty about where this kind of politics eventually goes. Source: Associated Press
Build a government machine powerful enough to crush your enemies and sooner or later somebody you’ve pissed off gets the keys. That’s the lesson here, and it’s considerably bigger than Milo Yiannopoulos. Government power doesn’t become harmless because the people exercising it share your politics today. Powers created for the bastard you hate can eventually be used by the bastard who hates you.
Milo wanted an immigration system that’d stop asking so many questions and start throwing people out. He wanted fewer excuses, less discretion and a whole lot more ICE. Well, congratulations, Milo. You finally got the immigration policy you ordered.
THE RECORD
Yiannopoulos is a British citizen who legally entered the United States through New York in May 2019, according to DHS. The department says he later overstayed and failed to appear for an immigration hearing, leading an immigration judge to issue a final removal order on July 22. ICE arrested him August 27 at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, and DHS says he’ll remain in custody pending removal. As of Friday evening, neither Reuters nor AP reported a public response from Yiannopoulos to DHS’s account. Sources: Reuters · Associated Press
His own immigration rhetoric is equally well documented. Yiannopoulos has advocated widespread ICE checkpoints, immediate deportation for people unable to prove lawful status, and the removal of millions of immigrants, while also calling for “zero immigration” for two decades. Those aren’t somebody else’s characterization of his position. They’re the policies he wanted right up until the machinery carrying them out found him. Sources: Associated Press · Reason
THE BULLSHIT DETECTOR
TRUMP SAYS SOUTH KOREA HAS 39,000 AMERICAN TROOPS AND BASICALLY WASN’T PAYING
Bullshit: FALSE AND INFLATED.
Why: Trump said the United States has 39,000 troops in South Korea and claimed Seoul had essentially failed to pay before he negotiated a roughly $3 billion annual contribution. AFP checked the public record and found about 26,500 U.S. troops are stationed there, while finding no evidence South Korea agreed to the $3 billion figure Trump described during his first term. South Korea has shared the cost of stationing American forces there since 1991, so portraying the arrangement as America footing the whole damn bill until Trump arrived doesn’t survive contact with the record. Source: AFP Fact Check
SUSAN COLLINS’ CAMPAIGN SAYS MAINE HIGH SCHOOLS FELL TO DEAD LAST
Bullshit: MISLEADING AS HELL.
Why: A Collins campaign ad blames Democratic Senate challenger Troy Jackson for Maine high schools ranking 51st in U.S. News’ state rankings. What it doesn’t mention is that Maine stopped allowing U.S. News access to AP performance data, a major piece of the ranking formula, and other states that withheld the same data also plunged toward the bottom. Maine’s education department says it stopped authorizing the data sharing because of student privacy concerns, which is a pretty important piece of context when you’re using the resulting ranking to beat somebody over the head in a campaign commercial. Source: FactCheck.org
SIX MONTHS INTO THE IRAN WAR, TRUMP POSTS “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED”
Bullshit: YOU’VE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME.
Why: Trump repeatedly sold the Iran war as a short operation, at one point describing it as a “little excursion,” but six months later the conflict’s still going and the United States has spent more than $37.5 billion. The administration’s shifting more heavily toward economic pressure, negotiations remain stalled, and Trump now says he’s in no hurry for diplomacy. Posting an AI-generated “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED 2026” image while the mission remains conspicuously unaccomplished isn’t optimism. It’s George W. Bush’s banner with Wi-Fi. Source: Associated Press
THE BULLSHIT DETECTOR FIELD GUIDE
If you’d like your own bullshit alarm tuned a little more finely, The Bullshit Detector is free to paid Off Script subscribers or available for $4.95 through the Tom Hicks Media store. It’s built for the political claim that sounds airtight until somebody commits the increasingly radical act of checking it. Think of it as something to keep handy whenever your television starts yelling at you.
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ONE QUESTION BEFORE YOU GO
Milo Yiannopoulos spent years demanding harsher immigration enforcement and is now caught inside the system he championed. The irony’s almost too perfect, but the larger question matters more. Does what happened to Milo change how you see the policy, or only how you see Milo?
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