Khaby Lame Was Detained by ICE, Agency Confirms
Let's cut to the chase. Yes, the world's top TikToker Khaby Lame was detained by ICE, the agency confirmed on June 7.
'U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Seringe Khabane Lame, 25, a citizen of Italy, June 6, at the Harry Reid International Airport, Las Vegas, Nevada for immigration violations,' ICE confirmed to Men's Journal in an emailed statement after Men's Journal asked whether it was true that ICE had arrested the popular TIkToker.
'Lame entered the United States April 30 and overstayed the terms of his visa. Lame was granted voluntary departure June 6 and has since departed the U.S.,' ICE wrote.
That news came after confusion erupted because Lame is not in the ICE arrest database. Furthermore, he's been posting on Instagram and on TikTok since the rumor went viral, including in a bookstore.
Men's Journal asked ICE public relations about the viral and unverified rumor that Lame was arrested, which started on the X page of a social media influencer named Bo Louden. A spokeswoman for ICE, Alethea Smock, told Men's Journal on the evening of June 6 that she was looking into it, and the agency responded with the statement on June 7.
On June 7, Lame posted several times to his Instagram story, including a post in a bookstore, holding a book. He also wished a top athlete a happy birthday. The moral of the story is to not instantly believe everything you read on the Internet. Furthermore, X's Grok was already warning on June 6 that the rumor was likely false. And Lame posted this video on TikTok on June 7:
In a June 6, 2025, post, Louden alleged that Lame - who has more than 162 million followers on TikTok - was arrested by ICE in Nevada and is in custody, and he shared a supposed ICE database screenshot in the name of Serigne Khabane Lame of Senegal. The post then ricocheted around social media and was viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
A community note was quickly attached to his post. "Khaby Lame is still living in Italy, and was granted citizenship there in 2022. ICE is a U.S.-based organization and cannot deport someone not living in the USA," it read.
But here's the thing. When you try it yourself, you get zero results. No evidence of Khaby Lame, Khabane Lame, or Serigne Khabane Lame being in ICE custody (as the screenshot lists). Nothing. Zero results come up also when you put the supposed A-Number from the screenshot into the database. In other words, the screenshot is impossible to replicate. That's likely because Lame was allowed to voluntarily leave the country, though, per the new statement.
On Louden's comment thread on X, other people wrote that they also got no results when they tried to replicate it in the official database, and they accused him of perpetrating a hoax.
Lame is an Italian citizen.
Furthermore, Italian citizens do not need a visa to be in the United States for up to 90 days. KRON4 confirmed that Khaby Lame was born in Senegal. He is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
"Lame moved to Italy from his native Senegal when he was an infant with his working class parents, but was only granted Italian citizenship when he was 20," that site reported.
In 2024, he starred in a show about trying to find a new home in the U.S. In early May, Lame was photographed attending the Met Gala in New York.
This post was updated with the ICE statement.Khaby Lame Was Detained by ICE, Agency Confirms first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 7, 2025
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