A Venezuelan national who crossed over the U.S. southern border illegally in 2022 went viral this month for urging migrants to come to America and illegally take over homes via squatting. He’s now reportedly wanted by federal authorities.
Leonel Moreno, according to the New York Post, was enrolled in a program called ATD, or the Alternatives to Detention. Instead of staying in a detention center near our border, Moreno, due to overcrowding, was given an ankle monitor and tracked by feds while he stayed in the U.S.
However, Moreno is now listed as an “absconder,” according to internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) documents viewed by the Post.
In one of his most infamous social media videos, Moreno told followers to “seize” uninhabited homes in the U.S. by squatting, and went on to claim that he has friends who have taken over 7 homes illegally by using such tactics.
“I already got some cheat codes from my African friends. They told me that they already have seized about 7 houses,” Moreno boasts in the video.
Noted migrant now promotes squatting as a business model. pic.twitter.com/sy8tTIMuzn
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) March 20, 2024
Despite Moreno accumulating tens of thousands of followers and millions of views online, it’s unclear if ICE will actually follow through to detain the illegal.
John Fabbricatore, a former ICE field office director for the agency in Denver, told the Post that illegals who abscond from the ATD program will likely not be tracked by federal agents, and will generally only become a target for ICE if local law enforcement arrest the illegal.
Currently, Moreno’s profile on TikTok has been deleted, though he is still active on Instagram. On Wednesday, he posted a video in which he holds up hundred-dollar bills next to his baby daughter. The post is captioned, “Slave you are and slave you will remain.”
Moreno this month unintentionally drew attention to a major problem plaguing cities across the nation: squatting. A leftist push for tenants’ rights in conjunction with pandemic-related eviction moratoriums are believed to have spurred the crisis.
Just last month, a woman in Queens, New York, named Adele Andaloro was arrested for changing the locks to her own million-dollar home in an attempt to remove at least three people who were living there illegally.
In New York City, squatters have rights after just 30 days. It’s against the law for property owners to turn off utilities, remove belongings, or change the locks. Property owners have to take squatters to court, a legal avenue that can take months or possibly years to resolve.
Cities like Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Atlanta have also seen alarming trends with illegally occupied homes. For example, the National Rental Home Council in January found that around 1,200 homes in the metro Atlanta area had squatters.
Related: Teen Squatters Taken Into Custody After Woman Found Dead In Duffle Bag
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