TikTok’s Most Popular Star Khaby Lame Leaves US After Being Detained by ICE

The TikTok star, who has about 162 million followers on the Chinese-owned app, arrived in the United States in April, ICE said.

TikTok star Khaby Lame poses for a photograph after being named UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in Dakar, Senegal, on Jan. 31, 2025. Sylvain Cherkaoui/AP Photo

TikTok star Khaby Lame has voluntarily left the United States after being detained by immigration agents in Nevada for allegedly overstaying his visa, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained the 25-year-old Senegalese Italian influencer, whose legal name is Seringe Khabane Lame, on June 6 at the Harry Reid International Airport near Las Vegas, a Senior DHS official confirmed in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.

“Lame was granted voluntary departure June 6 and has since self-deported the U.S.,” the official said.

Voluntary departure allows individuals facing removal from the United States to leave at their own expense, avoiding a deportation order on their immigration record, which could otherwise bar them from reentering the country for up to a decade.

Lame arrived in the United States on April 30, an ICE spokesperson said.

Lame, a citizen of Italy, is the world’s most popular TikTok personality, with about 162 million followers on the Chinese-owned app. He rose to international fame during the COVID-19 pandemic with videos that show him silently reacting to complicated life hacks.

He moved from his native Senegal to Italy as an infant but was not granted citizenship until 2022 because of strict Italian citizenship laws.

Lame told The Associated Press that before finding fame on TikTok, his family had been poor but happy.

Nowadays, “it’s another reality, it’s completely another world,” he said, adding that he was still not used to life in the spotlight but was gradually adapting.

Lame is also a UNICEF goodwill ambassador. He has not publicly commented on his detainment in Las Vegas.

The Epoch Times reached out to Lame for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Lame’s detainment and voluntary departure from the United States come as protests continue across the country in response to ICE operations.

Demonstrations initially broke out in Los Angeles on June 6 in response to ICE operations targeting illegal immigrants but have since spread to more cities, including Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Dallas, Washington, and Chicago.

In some locations, protestors clashed with law enforcement officials and were arrested.

Trump has deployed 4,000 members of the National Guard and hundreds of Marines to the Los Angeles area to quell the demonstrations, invoking his authority under Title 10 of the U.S. Code, which allows him to deploy National Guard units into federal service if the United States is invaded, there is a “rebellion or danger of rebellion,” or the president is “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”

The move marked the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, and prompted condemnation from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who described it as “unprecedented” and said it “threatens the very core of our democracy.”

Newsom asked a federal court on June 10 to block Trump from deploying federal troops in his city, but a judge denied the request.

Trump defended his actions in a post on Truth Social.

“If our troops didn’t go into Los Angeles, it would be burning to the ground right now, just like so much of their housing burned to the ground,” he said. “The great people of Los Angeles are very lucky that I made the decision to go in and help!!!”