Well-known online broadcaster and political analyst

Hasan Piker

, who has more than 2 million followers on the live-streaming platform, said he was detained and questioned by federal authorities at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport for more than two hours after arriving in the U.S. on an international flight.

This occurred when Piker, aged 33, was en route to address the University of Chicago on Sunday following his return from a family holiday in Paris. Piker, a well-known Turkish-American livestreamer known for speaking publicly against the conflict, was heading towards this engagement.


Gaza


told the audience at the Institute of Politics located at UChicago that he thinks he was singled out at O’Hare due to his criticisms of the Trump administration.

No video of the interaction has surfaced — but Piker had some specific claims about his interaction with U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.

“They took me to the back room, into a detention center. An agent came out and took me into the interrogation room … and they started asking me about crazy [expletive], like, ‘Do you like Donald Trump?'” he said.

The Twitch personality and progressive pundit, who hails from America, detailed to his numerous subscribers an extensive account of his two-hour interaction with federal officers upon arriving in Chicago directly from Paris. According to him, they probed not just into matters concerning the president but also sought information regarding his views on various topics.


Israel, Hamas


and the


Houthi rebels in Yemen


.

All that I have done is completely shielded by the First Amendment, alright?” Piker stated. “Besides, none of these queries are really legitimate questions to pose.

Piker mentioned that this holds true regardless of one’s political views.

“It’s illegal for them to even ask me those questions, like, they can’t deny me entry into my own country,” Piker said. “It’s like, even if I was like, ‘I love Hamas,’ they can’t do that. Like, what do you mean?”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin admitted that Piker was held, though she disagreed with his version of events.

McLaughlin said: “This is nothing but lying for likes. Claims that his political beliefs triggered the inspection are baseless. Our officers are following the law, not agendas.”

Piker, who said he has Global Entry, the CBP program for pre-approved and low-risk travelers, addressed McLaughlin’s comments on a Tuesday live stream.

He stated, ‘They readily acknowledge that it happened, correct?’ He added, ‘Accusing me of fabricating stories for likes is quite humorous since they don’t refute that it occurred—or that it was politically motivated.’

CBS News Chicago took the issue to legal analyst Irv Miller, who said the location is important here.

“I believe that this occurred due to the location being an airport—an entrance to the nation—there would likely have been surveillance cameras all around,” Miller stated.

Miller said international travelers do give up certain Fourth Amendment rights to search and seizure — but there is a line.

“Immigration has an absolute right to ask you who you are, and to see your identification — but they don’t have a right to ask you questions and demand answers of things other than your identity and your citizenship,” Miller said.

Miller said travelers always have a Fifth Amendment right to stay silent, but acknowledged that doing so has practical problems. Anyone who stays silent may be held longer, particularly at a time when border enforcement is an administration priority.

“The government is trying to be tougher. It is trying to be more invasive, and it’s getting close to that line whether or not something is constitutional or not constitutional,” said Miller, “and it always ends up in the courts.”

Miller said he tells clients to go with the flow until they feel uncomfortable, at which point they can ask for a supervisor.

Piker said Tuesday that he was answering some of the questions while he was detained, instead of choosing to stay silent, because he wanted to see the line of questioning. He was released and has since returned to Los Angeles.