Venezuelan migrant and social media influencer Leonel Moreno has been ordered for deportation by an Ohio-based immigration judge after going viral on TikTok for encouraging others to squat in US homes. Moreno, 27, crossed the southern border illegally into Eagle Pass, Texas, on April 23, 2022, and later failed to appear for check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), leading to his arrest in Columbus, Ohio, in March.
Despite the judge’s decree, a halt on deportation flights to Venezuela could hinder Moreno’s removal from the country. Earlier this year, President Nicolás Maduro’s administration stopped accepting flights of migrants deported from the US and Mexico in retaliation for Washington reimposing economic sanctions on the South American nation. The almost weekly flights from the US to Venezuela were halted in late January.
Meanwhile, a new wave of migrant crime from the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has emerged in US cities, including New York City, where a 19-year-old gangbanger was accused of shooting two NYPD officers in June. Moreno is not connected to this gang but has used his large social media following to encourage migrants from his home country to “invade abandoned houses,” while boasting about the support they could receive from the US government.
Moreno remains in custody at the Geauga County Jail in Ohio, where he’s been laying low. The migrant also spoke to The Post from jail in April, where he wailed about being a victim of unjust “persecution.
