Khaby Lame, the world’s most followed TikTok star, has left the U.S. voluntarily after he was briefly detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for overstaying the terms of his visa, according to reports.
The Associated Press reports that Lame, whose real name is Seringe Khabane Lame, was detained on June 6 at the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas but was permitted to leave the country without a deportation order. Lame reportedly arrived in the U.S. on April 30, a few days before he attended the Met Gala in New York City.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Seringe Khabane Lame, 25, a citizen of Italy, June 6, at the Harry Reid International Airport, Las Vegas, Nevada, for immigration violations,” a spokesperson from ICE said. “Lame entered the United States April 30 and overstayed the terms of his visa.”
Officials said that Lame “has since departed the U.S.” He had been granted a voluntary departure, which saw him avoid a deportation order.
Lame, who has more than 162M followers on TikTok, is a Senegalese-Italian TikToker and Unicef goodwill ambassador and is best known for his deadpan reactions to other videos. He first made a name for himself at the end of the pandemic, where his silent TikTok posts saw him make fun of life-hack videos, kicking off with a short film of him peeling a banana with his hands.
On Monday morning (June 9), the influencer shared a photo of himself in São Paulo, Brazil.
Lame’s run-in with ICE comes after President Trump and his administration called for the National Guard to be deployed against anti-ICE protests on the streets of L.A. this week. Nearly 5,000 troops have since descended on the city. California Governor Gavin Newsom made a speech on Wednesday condemning the move where he criticized the “brazen abuse of power by a sitting president” which he said, “inflamed a combustible situation, putting our people, our officers and even our National Guard at risk.”
