Laura Loomer, the dear confidante of a president and long time flaming nutjob, ratted out Milo Yiannopoulos, the one-time provocateur and Trump supporter turned bitter and irrelevant, for having overstayed his visa.

Laura Loomer—another right-wing provocateur, although one still on the side of MAGA faithfuls—has claimed credit for alerting authorities to him; The Telegraph, meanwhile, reports that Yiannopoulos’ “visa status is understood to have been brought to attention after he fell out of favour with senior officials over his increasingly hostile remarks.” While it is unwise to take Loomer’s words at face value, it is a reminder, at a minimum, that culture is in the eye of the beholder.

For many, schadenfreude made it hard to muster any sympathy for Milo’s plight. After all, as a card-carrying member of the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party, there was something poetic about Milo getting nabbed by ICE.

But one view of Yiannopoulos’ has remained steadfast. “California needs ICE checkpoints at supermarket entrances, gas stations, strip malls, intersections and government buildings,” he wrote in June of last year, “with on the spot deportation for anyone who can’t prove they are in the US legally.” In October, he taunted that he was “making sure…the right people” knew to deport left-leaning British commentator Mehdi Hasan, an American citizen. “Let him squeal ‘I’m more American than you!’ as they are dragging him onto his one way flight,” Yiannopoulos wrote. All in all, he summed his views up thusly: “We have got to deport millions and millions and millions of people,” because “without that, nothing else matters.”

It appears he will now be one of them. We was always a strange word choice, after all, when considering Yiannopoulos is not an American. But Yiannopoulos did not think this scrutiny would apply to him. “I mean bad immigrants,” he said in an interview with Joe Rogan in 2016. “I don’t mean handsome, charming, successful, blonde-haired British immigrants….It’s about culture.”

To be fair, the hatred of “illegals” was fueled, initially at least, by the claim that the government would be deporting only the “worst of the worst.” As is too often the case, dubious actions are justified by such hyperbole, much like civil forfeiture would only be used against drug kingpins and mobsters, until it was used against anybody carrying cash even when it bore no connection to any unlawful activity because the government just loves taking people’s cash.

Others, of course, made no such “worst of the worst” distinction, believing anyone here unlawfully had to be thrown out, whether they entered legally and morphed into illegal aliens due to a failing on their part (like overstaying a visa) or because the promises of protected status and asylum were pulled out from under them (like Afghanis who aided American forces or Haitians). And then there were the flaming hypocrites who just hated immigrants of the wrong color, accent or country of origin.

But this is Milo.

On August 27, ICE arrested Milo Yiannopoulos, an illegal alien from the United Kingdom, at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) in Kenner, Louisiana. Yiannopoulos legally entered the country on May 14, 2019, through New York City, New York. He chose to… https://t.co/Hk6QBUmGDI pic.twitter.com/DbIhv8Z6PI

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) August 28, 2026

Assuming that Milo did, indeed, overstay his visa and fail to appear at an immigration hearing, then he would be removable. Being Milo doesn’t change that, or relieve him from complying with the same law that applies to others. He should, obviously, be given due process to challenge the removal order, and if he loses, be sent back to whence he came.

Whether Milo is the “worst of the worst” is a matter of personal taste, but rules are still rules. That means he doesn’t get to violate immigration laws with impunity. It also means that he shouldn’t be treated any worse than any other person seized and held for deportation by the government, even if he wouldn’t be as kind to others in the same status. Being a provocative asshole is not a distinguishing factor under the law.

“What is the etiquette if you are going about your business and find yourself observing an [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] raid?” the right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos asked on X last year. “I want to show a little respect and decency. Are you allowed to masturbate where you stand, in the street, or should you find some kind of awning or motor vehicle?”

And Milo is, and was, a provocative asshole.

But there remains one additional wrinkle that hasn’t been given enough sunlight. Milo wasn’t nabbed by ICE because they came up with it on their own. His name didn’t magically pop up in some database of Brits who stayed too long. Milo was, if Loomer is to be believed, targeted because of his betrayal of President Trump. Had he remained loyal, would Loomer have snitched on him? Had he remained loyal, would ICE have grabbed him? While Milo may well be deserving of removal based on law alone, would his mere overstaying a visa have been shrugged off by ICE had he continued to be a provocateur for Trump?