Conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos says he is ashamed of his support for US President Donald Trump and regrets his previous calls for a hardline approach to deporting people living in the United States without legal immigration status.
Yiannopoulos was removed from the United States earlier this week after authorities alleged he had overstayed his visa. Now back in the United Kingdom, he appeared on Piers Morgan’s online programme to discuss the experience.
He told Morgan that “for the first time I know what it feels like to be really, really terrified”.
The Department of Homeland Security said Yiannopoulos entered the United States through New York in 2019 but remained after his visa expired. According to the agency, an immigration judge issued a final removal order on 22 July after he failed to attend a hearing.
“He chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation’s laws,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.
Yiannopoulos described the experience as “humiliating and disorienting”, “physically degrading” and “frightening”.
Morgan highlighted a series of online comments Yiannopoulos had previously made in support of a hardline approach to removing people living in the country without a valid visa, and suggested those comments made him look hypocritical.
“I didn’t really understand the physical reality of how institutionalised the brutality is in America,” Yiannopoulos said.
“It’s like everybody that’s arrested is an MS-13 gang member, and it hurts a lot more than it looks like on television.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been frightened like that before,” he told Morgan.
“I think maybe in the past I’ve been a little bit blasé when people talked about their trauma, a little bit cavalier when people talked about stuff kind of lingering with them, but I get it now. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”
Yiannopoulos disputed the government’s account, claiming he was not in the country unlawfully. He said he held a valid green card and was married to an American citizen.
Yiannopoulos married his husband in 2017 but later announced that he no longer identified as gay after embracing religion. He is currently divorcing his estranged spouse.
