Overview

Khaby Lame ICE Detainment refers to the detainment of Senegalese-Italian TikToker and content creator Khaby Lame by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Las Vegas, Nevada, in early June 2025. Lame had reportedly overstayed a visa. He was later granted voluntary departure and was released. A Twitter / X user named Bo Loudon claimed that he reported Lame to ICE and was responsible for his detainment. Loudon called Lame "far-left" in a series of tweets. The story went viral on social media sites like X and TikTok. The politicization of Lame's detainment, largely spearheaded by Bo Loudon, was met with backlash as many countered Loudon's claim that Khaby Lame was "far-left." The discourse mixed with other anti-ICE debates happening online at the same time, most notably the internet discussions surrounding the June 2025 LA ICE Protests.

Background

On June 6th, 2025, X^[1] user Bo Loudon (@BoLoudon) tweeted, "Far-left ILLEGAL ALIEN TikToker Khaby Lame was just ARRESTED and is now in ICE custody under President Trump. I discovered he was an illegal who overstayed an invalid VISA, evaded taxes, and I personally took action to have him deported. No one is above the law!" Loudon shared the phone number for ICE's tip line in a follow-up tweet. Over three days, the tweet gained over 14,000 likes (shown below).

Loudon tweeted^[2] again on June 6th, attaching a screenshot of Khaby Lame's ICE detention record. He wrote, "President Trump's ICE just officially arrested far-left TikToker, Khaby Lame, whom I reported as an illegal alien." Over three days, the tweet received over 3,700 likes (shown below).

On June 8th, 2025, Complex^[3] reported that Lame was detained at a Las Vegas airport because he entered the U.S. on April 30th and overstayed the terms of his visa. He was granted voluntary departure on June 6th and had already left the country for his home country of Italy.

Online Reactions

On June 6th, 2025, Bo Loudon's tweet was reshared and spread by other X users, many of them pro-Trump. For instance, on June 6th, X^[4] user David Harris Jr. (@DavidJHarrisJr) posted a tweet about Khaby Lame's ICE detainment, gaining over 7,000 likes in three days (shown below).

Loudon and Harris Jr. received backlash from anti-Trump and anti-ICE pundits on social media soon after. For instance, on June 6th, Twitch streamer Hasan Piker quote-tweeted ^[5] Harris Jr., writing, "Genuinely confused why all these accounts are posting this all of a sudden." Piker was skeptical of the claim's authenticity at the time and also wrote, "Khaby isn't 'far left' he doesn't even speak in vids!" Over three days, his post received over 10,000 likes (shown below).

On June 8th, 2025, the Italian news TikTok^[6] page @la.repubblica posted about Lame's ICE detainment, gaining over 58,900 likes in a day (shown below).

Search Interest

External References