Trump admin denies claim that Australian was deported for plan to ‘move into’ Billie Eilish’s mansion

An Australian activist who said he was deported from the US for saying he would ‘occupy’ Billie Eilish’s mansion disputed the Trump administration’s claims it had nothing to do with his comments.

Drew Pavlou, 24, said that ‘Billie Eilish got me deported from the US’ after he was detained and eventually sent home, despite being told it was due to him not having a business visa. 

Pavlou wanted to ‘occupy’ Eilish’s California home after her pro-immigration comments at the Grammys, having said ‘no one is illegal on stolen land.’ 

Customs and Border Patrol rejected his statement suggesting Eilish caused the deportation.

‘Claims that this individual’s admissibility was tied to external reports regarding Billie Eilish are false,’ a spokesperson for CBP told The Daily Mail. 

However, Pavlou told The Daily Mail that ‘I do not believe it’ when sent CBP’s statement. 

‘I travelled to the US literally last month and stayed two weeks in New York City,’ he said in an email, having visited the Capitol building in Washington and meeting State Department employees.

‘Billie Eilish got me deported from the US – I think her legal team contacted DHS (Department of Homeland Security),’ Pavlou claimed.

However, two weeks later, he claimed he was ‘flagged at the US border as a security threat and was seemingly accused by CBP officials of previously plotting to bomb Chinese government facilities.’ 

‘This doesn’t make sense. Why was I invited to speak to US diplomats in the middle of January and flagged as a security threat in the middle of February? The only thing that changed was my very public online social media jokes regarding Billie Eilish.’

He accused Eilish’s legal team of having put together ‘an information pack on me and sent it to DHS to try to flag me at the border.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to a spokesperson for Eilish for comment.  

Pavlou announced his mission to move into the singer’s multi-million-dollar Californian home in the LA suburb of Glendale, after Eilish gave a Grammy speech on February 1, focusing on the controversial US immigration enforcement operations. 

However, Pavlou’s ‘performance art’ project was ruined when border authorities stopped him on his way into the country and detained him for more than a day before sending him home because he did not arrive on a business visa.

In her speech, the ‘Bad Guy’ songstress, 24, said that ‘no one is illegal on stolen land’ – a reference to the colonisation of North America – but Pavlou wanted to put that to the test by camping on her property, which is on land that was taken by force from the Tongva people.

‘I spent 30 hours at LAX immigration trying to explain that my s–t posts were just a joke and that I didn’t actually plan to personally move into her mansion,’ he said on social media earlier this week. 

‘Honestly most of the agents were nice and laughed at the idea but there was nothing I could do, maybe evil leftists are still in charge of sections of the bureaucracy.

‘I guess some people are in fact actually illegal on stolen land. And I guess I am just a bad guy.’

Pavlou had made a GoFundMe to raise money for his trip to get to the mansion which got $3,000 in donations before it was taken down by the site. 

He wrote that he planned to travel to the US and set up camp outside the gates of Eilish’s $2.4million home until ‘someone told him to leave’. 

The gated mansion is 2,100 square feet and includes a separate guesthouse, horse stables, and an arena.

Pavlou said he intended to camp outside for several months after Eilish used her Grammy acceptance speech to decry ICE, which has been deporting thousands in the US.

‘As grateful as I feel, I honestly don’t feel like I need to say anything, but that no one is illegal on stolen land,’ she said.

‘And f*** ICE, that’s all I’m gonna say. Sorry!’

Her speech attracted widespread criticism over the fact that her mansion sits on traditional, ancestral land belonging to the Tongva tribe.

A spokesperson from the tribe previously told Daily Mail Eilish had never contacted them in regards to the vast dwelling she owns on their land.

Pavlou said when he arrived at LAX, US customs and border officials asked him if he planned to ‘trespass on Billie Eilish’s property’ to which he replied: ‘no, I was sh*tposting’.

‘They asked me if I planned to try to meet Billie Eilish I said no, of course not.’

Pavlou then admitted officers told him that he had entered the country with the wrong paperwork.

‘They then said I should have applied for a business visa to go on Stephen Crowder’s show in Texas (I was invited and scheduled to go on February 19). 

‘They didn’t ban me from the US but they said I have to apply with a different visa next time.

‘So sad.’

After Pavlou’s GoFundMe was removed, he switched sites to GiveSendGo which allowed his post to remain active as more and more people donated to the cause.

Eventually Pavlou was able to drum up the money to purchase his ticket and embark on the ‘totally legal’ plan. 

‘Everything here is completely and totally legal, I am just going to set up a tent on her driveway and I will leave when they formally ask me to leave,’ Pavlou said. 

‘No human being is illegal on stolen land.’

On his way home he lamented the stunt had cost him, or his supporters, thousands of dollars in wasted airline fees.