Singapore’s Shanmugam on deported blogger Amos Yee: ‘I wish the Americans had kept him’

Singapore's Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam has expressed a blunt wish regarding controversial blogger Amos Yee: that the United States had not deported him. During an interview on The Rishi Report podcast, Shanmugam reacted to Yee's image by stating, "I wish the Americans had kept him." Yee, 27, was deported from the U.S. on March 19 and arrested upon arrival at Singapore's Changi Airport the following day. He now faces charges for violating Singapore's compulsory military service rules, a serious offence in the city-state.

Shanmugam used the case to criticize what he called "a tremendous hypocrisy" among some Western media and rights advocates. He argued they had mistakenly cast Yee, who was granted U.S. asylum in 2017 on claims of political persecution, as a free-speech icon while overlooking his subsequent criminal convictions. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security lists Yee among the "worst of the worst criminal aliens" arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), following his imprisonment for sex offences. The minister's comments highlight the ongoing tension between Singapore's strict legal framework and external perceptions of its governance, framing Yee not as a political dissident but as a repeat offender whose case has been misrepresented on the international stage.