Hasan Piker Detained By CBP While Reentering The U.S. From France

Hasan Piker, an online streamer and political commentator, was detained for several hours by Customs and Border Protection officers over the weekend and asked leading questions about what he thought of President Donald Trump and Hezbollah, among other topics, he said.

Piker discussed the surprise detention in a Monday afternoon stream on Twitch, telling his nearly 3 million followers he was questioned at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago after returning from a trip to France.

“They literally, they tried to straight-up get something out of me that I think they could use to basically detain me permanently,” he said.

“He kept asking over and over again, Hamas, Houthis, all this shit, trying to be like, ‘Oh, do you support them, do you like them? What do you think about them?’”

Piker conceded that he probably “yapped away” more than was in his own interest because he was hoping to cut the detention short, and also because he wanted to see what sort of information they were looking for.

“Instead of just pleading the Fifth as I’m supposed to do in situations like this, I just kept giving him answers,” he said.

“Knowing full well that they know exactly what they’re looking for, I saw no reason to hold back on certain things, so I said, ‘I don’t like Trump. What are you going to do? It’s protected by the First Amendment ... [Trump] said he was going to end the wars. He hasn’t ended the wars. What the f**k is up with that?’”

Piker said he was bracing for the officer to ask for his phone. In preparation, he’d turned off Face ID on his iPhone and set it to only use a passcode to unlock, which CBP officers can’t legally compel you to provide if you’re detained.

They never asked for the device, however.

(HuffPost has a thorough explainer here with more information on what to do if a border agent asks for your phone.)

Reflecting on his detention, Piker said he suspects his it was a deliberate attempt to sow fear in the media.

“The reason for why they’re doing that is, I think, to try to create an environment of fear,” he said. “To try to get people like myself, or at least others that would be in my shoes that don’t have that same level of security, to shut the fuck up.”

He later called it a “completely idiotic and ridiculous [tactic] not knowing that I’m a stubborn piece of shit, and that’s not going to work at all.”

A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson couldn’t immediately verify Piker’s detention, nor could they discuss why Piker might’ve been selected for additional questioning.

While Piker may be the highest-profile person detained by CBP on their return to the United States, he’s far from the only one.

In April, Amir Makled, a lawyer representing a pro-Palestinian student protester, was detained at the Detroit Metro Airport on his way back from a spring break trip abroad with his family.

Makled told HuffPost at the time that federal agents did seize his phone, though he stood his ground amid the 90-minute detention as he argued that, as a lawyer, his phone contained privileged work-related information.

“I don’t know if it was a fishing expedition or not,” he told HuffPost. “My gut tells me they were trying to see who I was associating with. But there’s no real way to tell.”

Piker didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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