05/13/2025May 13, 2025
Streamer Hasan Piker says border agents questioned him about Trump, Hamas
Left-wing influencer and political commentator Hasan Piker has said he was detained for hours by US border officials and interrogated about his political views.
Piker, a US citizen, said on Monday that he was held at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport for over two hours on Sunday as he was returning to the United States from a family trip to France.
Piker, who has millions of followers on YouTube, Twitch and X, has been outspoken in his criticism of Israel.
His exchanges with officials were “cordial” and the experience wasn’t “that bad,” Piker stressed in a YouTube video about his experience.
But an officer asked his views on Trump and whether he has been in contact with militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
“Do you like Hamas? Like, do you support Hamas? Do you think Hamas is a resistance group?” Hasan said the border official asked.
“The reason for why they’re doing that is, I think, to try to create an environment of fear, to try to get people like myself, or at least like others that would be in my shoes that don’t have that same level of security, to shut up,” Piker said.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin has denied that Piker’s political beliefs triggered the more intense screening.
“Claims that his political beliefs triggered the inspection are baseless. Our officers are following the law, not agendas,” she said in a statement.
Defending Rights and Dissent, a US organization defending civil liberties, said it was “deeply disturbed” that border officials are stopping political commentators to interrogate them.”
“Such an abuse of power is an affront to press freedom,” it said in a post on X.
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