A Venezuelan TikToker who gained national attention for encouraging his fellow illegal immigrants to milk the system and receive taxpayer-funded handouts is now wanted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Leonel Moreno went viral last month for showing other illegal immigrants how to “invade” uninhabited homes using squatters’ rights. In the video, he bragged about how his “African friends” had already taken over seven homes. That video received 3.9 million views.
Moreno illegally crossed the border in April 2022.
He was enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention program, which allows illegal immigrants to stay in their communities. Due to a lack of space, he was set free on parole. After failing to show up for his set court date, Moreno was listed as an “absconder,” according to internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) documents obtained by the New York Post.
He has been making videos on how to rip off the American system ever since.
Moreno is known for bragging about his free lifestyle and mocking illegal immigrants and Americans who earn a living working honest jobs. He has bragged in several videos about how he, his wife and their young daughter receive $350 a week from the government. In one video, he bragged about how he made $1,000 a day by begging.
Look who is crying now.
He broke several laws and will be arrested. https://t.co/aFcyXIahVw
— amyjacobson (@amyjacobson) March 28, 2024
“I don’t like to work,” he told his followers. “Boys, in the U.S. there are a million tricks, a million things to do,” he said as he told others how to live for free in the U.S.
“I’ve concluded that the American Dream is real,” he said in a separate post, adding that he has lived for more than a year in the U.S. and never had to work. “This is food of the best quality that they just give you.”
If that wasn’t bad enough, Moreno uses his young daughter as a prop while out panhandling to get more money. He referred to her as a “goldmine.”
Moreno is just an example of the thousands of illegal immigrants who escape the government’s radar.
Remember when you vote in 2024 that it's the Democrats who are ruining America with their insane illegal immigration & soft-on-crime policies & runaway inflation.
Resist the media brainwash. Vote Republican. https://t.co/DX1M7YVkGn
— Nick Flor 🥋+🇺🇸 (@ProfessorF) March 29, 2024
“We have witnessed yet another individual who was allowed entry into the US under the ATD program, only to abscond and make TikTok videos explaining how to break the law. The question stands — how many thousands more are out there unaccounted for after fleeing this program?” said John Fabbricatore, a former ICE field office director, in a statement to the New York Post.
“The ICE Alternatives to Detention program, despite its multi-billion-dollar budget, is failing to meet necessary standards and has alarmingly high absconder rates. ICE fails to track down absconders and instead just removes them from the program,” he added.
Moreno stated that he had originally tried to settle in Canada but said that they did not deliver on the promises of free stuff, causing him to enter the U.S. He also praised President Joe Biden, referring to him as “Mi Papa,” or “My Dad” for giving out so many freebies.
Authorities currently are unaware of Moreno’s whereabouts, but according to his videos, he is living in Ohio.