An infamous Venezuelan national who is also a TikTok influencer and encourages illegal migrants to invade the U.S. and squat in homes is now wanted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The New York Post reported that Leonel Moreno crossed into the nation illegally in August 2022 at Eagle Pass, Texas. He was enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program.
He was allowed to skip a detention center near the Mexican border and wear an ankle monitor to be tracked by authorities. ICE now, however, lists Moreno as an “absconder” and he is being sought by the agency.
The illegal told his tens of thousands of social media followers that they should simply take over homes owned by Americans. Moreno called on migrants to “seize” these uninhabited dwellings by “squatting,” an increasingly popular and quite illegal practice.
The Venezuelan boasted that at least seven U.S. homes have been taken over by “my African friends.”
But according to one expert, the chances of ICE actually tracking Moreno and taking him into custody are not high. John Fabbricatore is a former agency field office director in Denver, and he said that it is not normal practice for ICE to search for such absconders.
Leonel Moreno, a Venezuelan illegal migrant who told his 500,000 followers to squat in American homes and abuse the legal system is now running away from ICE.
New York Post reports that he crossed the southern border illegally in 2022 and was enrolled in the Alternatives to… pic.twitter.com/2WxrP5wJPG
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 27, 2024
The federal agency will likely only become involved if Moreno is arrested by local law enforcement.
Fabbricatore said that there are currently over a million illegal migrants in the ATD program, calling it “nothing short of a failure.” He blamed the Biden administration for overreliance on such a stopgap system that released hundreds of thousands of unvetted illegals into U.S. communities.
The current Colorado political candidate observed that yet another person absconded from the program. This one, Fabbricatore said, now makes TikTok videos telling his followers how to break the law.
He asked, “How many thousands more are out there unaccounted for after fleeing this program?”
But the social media personality is not going to great lengths to hide his whereabouts. He posted a video standing next to a police car from Gahanna, a suburb of Columbus, Ohio.
The Post reached out to Gahanna police, who said they were aware of the illegal migrant’s videos. They noted, however, “To date, our agency has had no contact with this individual and we are unaware of his location.”
Moreno claimed that he and his wife and daughter benefit from $350 a week from the federal government.
