No one escapes the anti-immigration screw in the United States. Not even one of the world’s web stars. The most followed Tiktokeur in the world, the Senegalian-Italian Khaby Lame was briefly arrested by the US immigration police (ICE) for exceeding the validity of his visa, the authorities announced on Saturday. However, he ended up being authorized to leave the country.
“The American immigration and customs authorities arrested (…) Khabane Lame, 25, Italian citizen, on June 6, at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas (Nevada) for violation of immigration laws,” the agency said in a statement transmitted to AFP.
Khaby Lame had entered the United States on April 30 and “exceeded the validity of his visa,” added the ICE press release. However, the agency does not provide details on the conditions of the stay of blade on American soil, where European tourists can normally stay 90 days without visa.
Number one to the world of the Tiktok application, where it has 162.2 million subscribers, the Italian influencer of Senegalese origin “was granted a voluntary departure on June 6 and has since left the United States”. On Saturday afternoon, Khaby Lame had not yet published an article on the incident.
Income in millions of euros
Since his return to power in January, President Donald Trump has held his campaign promises by strengthening immigration controls and by carrying out a massive expulsion campaign in the United States, some aspects of which have been disputed in the United States.
Khaby Lame, named UNICEF ambassador at the end of January, was known by his short silent videos that make fun of the tutorials and convoluted advice that abound on the Internet. He punctuates his videos with a characteristic gesture, the palms shot to the sky, accompanied by a accomplice smile and big eyes, by offering his own simple remedies.
The idea of its content came to him when he was walking in the HLM city where his family lived in Chivasso, near Turin, after losing his job as a factory mechanic in March 2020.
His publications have taken off and allowed him to generate significant income. For example, he earned around $ 16.5 million (14.5 million euros) thanks to partnership contracts with companies between June 2022 and September 2023, according to Forbes.