The U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency recently began searching for a Venezuelan national who went viral on TikTok for urging illegal immigrants to travel to America and obtain shelter by becoming squatters.
The New York Post reported that Leonel Moreno had been enrolled in a program called Alternatives to Detention (ATD). With illegal immigration on the rise, overcrowding led authorities to provide Moreno with an ankle monitor instead of putting him in a detention center near the southern border.
ICE officials now list Moreno as an “absconder,” according to internal documents by the agency.
In one of his social media videos, the Venezuelan national told followers to “seize” homes in the U.S. by squatting. He claimed that his friends had illegally taken over seven homes in the U.S.
“I already got some cheat codes from my African friends. They told me that they have already seized about seven houses,” Moreno said in the video.
Noted migrant now promotes squatting as a business model. pic.twitter.com/sy8tTIMuzn
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) March 20, 2024
Although Moreno has garnered a significant number of followers and views online, it remains to be seen whether ICE will detain the illegal immigrant.
A former field office director for ICE, John Fabbricatore, told the New York Post that illegal immigrants who flee the ATD program won’t likely be tracked by federal agents and would only become a target for ICE if local law enforcement arrested the foreign national.
Moreno’s TikTok profile has been deleted, but he is still active on Instagram. The Venezuelan national recently posted a video that shows him holding a couple of $100 bills next to his baby daughter. The post contains the caption, “Slave you are and slave you will remain.”
In March 2024, Moreno accidentally brought attention to a major issue occurring across America: squatting. The left has, for years, pushed illegal immigrants to partake in such an activity, thereby exacerbating the crisis.
In February 2024, a woman in Queens, New York, Adele Andaloro, was arrested for changing the locks of her million-dollar home to try and remove three squatters illegally living in the home. New York City law says squatters have rights after 30 days. It is illegal in the state for property owners to shut off utilities, remove belongings or change the locks.
