The migrant influencer who showed other illegal immigrants how to squat in the United States will not be deported to Venezuela, despite being ordered to leave the country due to a diplomatic dispute.
An Ohio judge ordered Leonel Moreno, 27, to leave the United States on Sept. 9. This is reported by the New York Post.
But earlier this year, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stopped accepting deportation flights from the United States and Mexico after Washington reimposed economic sanctions.
The Biden administration said at the time that Maduro’s authoritarian regime had failed to restore diplomatic order as agreed last October, and near-weekly U.S. deportation flights to Venezuela were halted in late January. according to the Wall Street Journal.
There are also no direct commercial flights from the United States to Venezuela after the federal Department of Transportation suspended them in 2019, citing reports of unrest and violence. Mexican authorities also said they would not deport Venezuelans on commercial flights, the Journal reports.
Leonel Moreno, who gained notoriety for a video in which he encouraged migrants to occupy houses in the United States, will not be deported to Venezuela
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has stopped accepting deportation flights from the United States and Mexico after Washington reimposed economic sanctions
Instead, Moreno is being held in federal custody at the Geauga County Jail in Ohio after Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him for violating the terms of his probation, which was imposed for illegally entering the U.S. on April 23, 2023.
He later gained notoriety after posting a TikTok video advising his followers on how to “invade” American homes and invoking squatters’ rights.
Moreno said in the video that under U.S. law, “if a house is not inhabited, we can confiscate it.”
He was referring to squatters’ rights, or adverse possession laws, a common law principle that allows a squatter to acquire ownership of a property based on continued occupation without the consent of the legal owner.
Moreno posted videos encouraging migrants to take advantage of U.S. benefits
He traveled to the US with his wife and young daughter, whom he frequently appears in his clips.
It later emerged that Moreno may have been a sergeant in Venezuela’s military intelligence department before crossing the border at Eagle Pass, Texas.
He traveled to the US with his wife and young daughter, whom he frequently appears in his clips.
The family had reportedly received $350 a week from the federal government, and at one point Moreno showed off $100 bills in a video encouraging other migrants to collect government aid.
“I didn’t cross the Rio Grande to work like a slave,” he said in the clip.
Some of his other videos show him claiming that he was begging for money on the streets with his young daughter.
Moreno is now being held in the Ceauga County Jail in Ohio.
Moreno was finally arrested in March.
ICE officials were looking for him and said he had enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention program, which allows immigrants on parole to go free while officials track them down until their next court date.
But Moreno failed to appear for his court date in Miami in November 2022, and was labeled a “fugitive” from the program, leading to his arrest.
Moreno could also be charged with weapons possession after one of his videos showed him brandishing a large firearm in a gun store and asking his followers which weapon they like best.
The video was reported to Immigration and Customs Enforcement by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
He could face weapons charges after one of his videos showed him brandishing a large firearm in a gun store and asking his followers which weapon they like best.
Any additional charges would “escalate” the case against Moreno, former ICE field office director John Fabbricatore told the Post.
But after his arrest, Moreno said he was a victim of persecution.
“I am in mortal danger in the United States! I need protection! They are persecuting me! My account has been blocked!” she told her followers in a video, while visibly sobbing.
‘My people, I need you to pay attention to what is happening because my family is in danger. My TikTok accounts have been deleted. I have received threats from powerful people. Help!’
In another video he added: ‘My people, you already got what you wanted! Envy has reached my family! Everything that is happening is because of your evil!
‘They want to silence me!’
In another video from the Ohio prison, Moreno can be heard complaining about his sentence.
“I came here to the United States because of persecution in my country… But they are doing the same thing to me in the United States: they are persecuting me,” Moreno said.
“Everything in the media about me is misinformation. They are defaming me, they are distorting me in the news… I am a good father, a good son, a good person, humble, respectful of people who respect me.”
