Hasan Piker—progressive political commentator, YouTuber, and Twitch streamer—revealed he was detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents for almost two hours at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Sunday as he returned to the United States from France.
Piker—a U.S. citizen born to Turkish parents in New Brunswick, New Jersey—said the CBP agents' goal was to intimidate him as they questioned him about his opinions on MAGA Republican President Donald Trump, Houthi rebels, Hamas, his bans from Twitch, and Israel. Piker has routinely spoken about the genocide in Gaza, advocated for Palestinian rights, and criticized the Israeli government.
He shared details of what happened at O'Hare on his Twitch livestream on Monday, with a video later posted on his HasanAbi YouTube channel for his 1.6 million subscribers.
Piker stated:
"The goal here is to put fear into people’s hearts, to have a chilling effect on speech. That, like, the government is unafraid of intimidating you."
However, Piker remains resolute in his convictions.
He added:
"Does this stop me from saying whatever the f**k I want to say? Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous."
"But the reason why I wanted to talk about it was to give you more insight into what the government is doing, and to speak out against this sort of stuff."
You can see a clip here:
Kristi Noem's Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), Tricia McLaughlin, claimed Piker was "lying for likes," but also admitted he was detained. McLaughlin said Piker's almost two hour detention was a "routine" inspection any traveler could be subjected to for any reason at any time.
However, Piker’s story of being singled out for his political views echoes other accounts of the Trump administration's DHS agents targeting U.S. citizens who have criticized Trump as they reenter the country.
Based on the agents' questions, Piker stated:
"It’s very obvious they knew exactly who the f**k I was."
"[A CBP agent was] like, ‘Do you talk about Trump?’ And that was the first time where I was like, ‘What is this question?' I literally straight up told him."
"I was like, ‘Why are you asking me this…what does this have to do with anything?' I don’t like Trump. Like, what are you going to do? It’s protected by the First Amendment."
He reiterated:
"The reason for why they’re doing that is, I think, to try to create an environment of fear, to try to get people like myself—or at least like others that would be in my shoes that don’t have that same level of security—to shut the... up."
"I'm an American citizen. You can't just stop me at the border and be like, 'What's your opinion on Donald Trump? You're not allowed to enter the nation'."
Piker said when he asked if he'd be detained again, a CBP agent gave him a piece of paper to contact the DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program.
He told The Washington Post:
"[The agent] basically said, 'you know, you can figure out what not to do so that this doesn’t happen again'. And I suspect the what-not-to-do is just don’t be a political commentator that speaks about American foreign policy, which is not something I’m planning on stopping."
Chip Gibbons—policy director for Defending Rights and Dissent—posted on X:
"We are deeply disturbed that CBP is stopping political commentators at the border to interrogate them about First Amendment-protected activities. Such an abuse of power is an affront to press freedom."
Aaron Terr—director of public advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)—told Truthout:
"If Piker, a U.S. citizen, was detained and questioned solely over his views on the Gaza war, it would mark a troubling escalation of the Trump administration’s efforts to punish dissent on the issue. The First Amendment squarely protects speech on matters of public debate."
People criticized the Trump administration's intimidation tactics and hypocrisy.
r/DecodingTheGurus/Reddit
@hasandpiker/TikTok
@hasandpiker/TikTok
@hasandpiker/TikTok
r/DecodingTheGurus/Reddit
@hasandpiker/TikTok
@hasandpiker/TikTok
r/DecodingTheGurus/Reddit
@hasandpiker/TikTok
@hasandpiker/TikTok
@hasandpiker/TikTok
You can watch the full almost 40 minute video here:
@jaketapoer/Bluesky
@BillAckman/Twitter