Khaby Lame, the world’s most popular TikTok personality with more than 162 million followers and 2.5 billion likes, has left the United States after being detained by immigration agents in Las Vegas for allegedly overstaying his visa.
Lame, whose legal name is Seringe Khabane Lame, was detained on June 6 at the Harry Reid International Airport but was allowed to leave the country without a deportation order, according to a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The Senegalese-Italian influencer, 25, arrived in the U.S. on April 30 to attend the Met Gala on May 5 and “overstayed the terms of his visa,” the ICE spokesperson said in a statement to The New York Times. As a social media personality, Lame travels frequently and is nomadic — he does not reside in the U.S.
Lame has not publicly commented on his detainment and has continued to post on social media, including an Instagram story from São Paulo, Brazil, on Monday.
The TikToker’s detainment and voluntary departure from the U.S. comes amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalating crackdown on immigration, including raids in Los Angeles that sparked days of protests against ICE.
A voluntary departure — which was granted to Lame — allows those facing removal from the U.S. to avoid a deportation order on their immigration record, which could prevent them from being allowed back into the U.S. for up to a decade.
After Lame left the U.S., a Gen Z influencer named Bo Loudon took credit for his detainment.
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“I discovered that he was an illegal who overstayed an invalid VISA, evaded taxes,” Loudon claimed on X. “And I personally took action to have him deported. No one is above the law!”
Loudon, who claims to be friends with Trump’s son Barron, said in an interview that Lame had worked with a few of his friends, who told him the TikToker was staying in the country illegally.
“I just called some buddies in the administration,” Loudon told online streamer Dylan Page. “And I’ve never seen anything happen so quick.”
“They actually gave him until June 1 to self-deport but he didn’t do that either. He wanted to stay because he had other contracts and to attend things in the United States, one of which I was at. There was The Beautiful Game, it was called — a bunch of celebrity soccer players — and Khaby was supposed to be there, he signed contracts to be there but that was the day before he got deported,” Loudon claimed.
“That was June 6, past June 1st he was still in the United States on a revoked visa. He didn’t self-deport so they went and picked him up in Vegas as he was in the airport to head to Miami for that event.”
Loudon went on to wish Lame “the best of luck” and said he hopes “he’s able to come back as a law-abiding citizen.”
Lame rose to international fame during the COVID-19 pandemic without ever saying a word in his TikTok videos, which showed him reacting to complicated “life hacks.”
The influencer moved to Italy when he was young and has Italian citizenship.
After he gained popularity on the social media platform, he signed a multi-year partnership with designer brand Hugo Boss in 2022 and in January, he was appointed a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.
— With files from The Associated Press
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