Hasan Piker’s ICE detainment is a cautionary tale for multiple reasons

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I could explain Hasan Piker’s politics to you, but that’s entirely irrelevant. The bold, all caps, underlined point is that a high profile, US-born American citizen was detained on Sunday by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for, it would seem, the crime of speech.

On a Monday stream to his 2.8 million Twitch subscribers, Piker described how he flew from Paris to Chicago and was detained after trying to go through Global Entry. His streams are typically a mixture of him playing video games and talking about his progressive politics, but today he described the frightening experience of being taken from the airport to a separate location, being questioned by a federal agent with whom he was shockingly open, and eventually being released. His description of the ordeal made two things clear: one, the Trump administration is willing to sic its agents on media personalities; two, that ordinary citizens and non-citizens alike—and even fellow media people/journalists—should not follow his ill-advised approach to dealing with people with the power to throw you in jail.

Piker, 33, posted a selfie to X on Sunday with the cryptic caption: “it happened.” Then he followed up a few minutes later, writing: “i got stopped by cbp at global entry for additional questioning. i’m out it wasn’t that bad. very strange experience overall though.” By Monday he was on Twitch as usual and took 39 minutes out of his hours of streaming to explain what went down.

He said as he was going through Global Entry, he was asked by an agent to “step aside.” Then he was taken by an ICE agent to what he called a “detention center,” where he saw “a bunch of terrified families.” One woman, he said, was in a wheelchair. Eventually he was called into another room to speak with another agent. 

According to Piker’s account, the agent acted as if he didn’t know who he was, and asked a series of questions that led to him eventually asking “Do you support Hamas?” He was also asked about the Houthis and Hezbollah. As I said earlier, Piker’s politics are immaterial to whether he should or should not have been detained, but with this question it seemed pretty clear to the government that it was very much top of mind.

Piker has vocally supported Palestinian rights and against the Israeli government’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. Rep. Ritchie Torres, the self-appointed arbiter of antisemitism, once accused Piker of being antisemitic. But whether you agree with him or not, he has every right to say what he believes, as enshrined in the Constitution. 

However, the way he approached the situation and excessively engaged with the federal agent is concerning. “I know that under normal circumstances I'm supposed to say I want a lawyer, I don't want to talk to you. But nothing I'm doing is illegal, and I also wanted to see what would happen,” Piker said on his stream.

As Peter Shamshiri, writer of the newsletter String in a Maze, posted on Bluesky: “i would imagine hasan knows, rationally, not to talk in situations like this. he did anyway because cops of all stripes are very good at making you feel like in just this one particular situation it makes more sense to talk a bit. don't ever give in to that impulse.”

The truth is that in any interaction with immigration officials, saying anything without a lawyer could be the difference between remaining in the country or not, or being imprisoned or not. Obviously Piker is famous and an American citizen, so his calculus was slightly different. He also knew full well he’d get a lot of content out of it, though that doesn’t detract from the very real fear I’m sure he felt.

Piker’s experience is a cautionary tale about abuse of power, but it’s also an important lesson in what not to do when confronted by immigration cops. As we’ve seen, these agents do not conform to our regular understanding of what’s legal, and one wrong word or look could change everything. That isn’t a risk anyone should take.

It’s difficult to write about these issues without stoking fear. Piker acknowledged that in his stream.

“I thought maybe I shouldn't reveal this stuff because I think, like, 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 in illegal ways,” Piker said. “The government is now officially willing and able to intimidate you for speech. That is a direct violation of the First Amendment.”

His ordeal certainly exposes the tension here. Obviously it’s crucial to share these stories so that they don’t die in darkness, but at the same time, it adds a level of anxiety to an already anxiety-ridden time. 

Right before I was traveling domestically in late March, I heard the story of an author who was asked for her passport when she checked in for a domestic flight even though she was a citizen. At the time I hadn’t renewed my passport (I have now) and hadn’t gotten around to upgrading a Real ID. I had visions of being whisked away as I walked through security, and even had an email to friends and family ready to send should that happen.

Delusional? Perhaps. But now that someone journalist-adjacent has been detained, the fear seems like it wasn’t unjustified.