He May Not Live Through It: TikTokker Who Told Illegals to Squat US Homes Faces Terrifying Punishment in Home Country

As much as you don’t want to defend Venezuela-style justice when it could cost an individual who hasn’t committed a violent crime on the country’s soil their life, you do have to say this much about Leonel Moreno: It probably couldn’t happen to a better person, if it has to happen at all.

Moreno, as you might recall, was an illegal immigrant influencer — yes, that’s really a thing — on TikTok, where he cooked up elaborate and thoroughly unlawful scams and encouraged violent behavior.

He bragged that “Papa Biden” paid every dime of his daughter’s delivery and that he didn’t work for any of his (apparently not inconsiderable) income once he crossed the Rio Grande, encouraged other illegal immigrants to invade unoccupied homes under a false pretext that they could obtain squatter’s rights lawfully, and even organized a fundraiser for an illegal immigrant accused of shooting a Brazilian tourist in Times Square in New York City. Because, you know, why not?

He’s now been sent back to Venezuela — and, according to a New York Post report on Thursday, is now charged with inciting hatred due to his “attitude in the U.S.”

Moreno, now 28, is “now being prosecuted for crimes committed against Venezuelans,” said Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s minister of Interior, Justice, and Peace.

This comes after Cabello said the TikTokker was “welcome” back in the country a few days earlier, according to the U.K. Daily Mail. I’m guessing he apparently read the room in the interim and decided that, in a state where summary lock-up for undesirables isn’t a bug but a feature of the “justice” system, putting this guy in the slammer was a popular move.

The influencer was arrested in March of 2024 for failing to make follow-up visits with the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement office after he crossed the border two years earlier. A judge ordered him deported a few months later.

This was after his antics had gone viral on TikTok — but before the Nicolás Maduro government was accepting flights of deported migrants back to the country. Trump and the regime reached an agreement back in January and Moreno was deported last week, albeit in a special section of the plane due to fellow deportees’ animosity toward them. Apparently, they were upset with how he portrayed Venezuelan immigrants on social media.

Yes, he gave illegal immigration a bad name. Who would have thought it?

As his deportation neared, some his old clips resurfaced, including ones where he said “I didn’t cross the Rio Grande to work like a slave,” and told migrants they could “invade abandoned houses,” adding that “I found out that there is a law that says that if a house is not inhabited, we can seize it.”

“I think that will be my next business, invading abandoned houses,” he said.

NEW: TikToker is going viral by telling illegal immigrants how to “invade” homes in America thanks to progressive squatting laws

Remarkable.

“We can invade a house in the USA, what do you think about this new law?” a video from one TikTok user read.

The man said he has African… pic.twitter.com/b92DT9fYq7

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 20, 2024

In a 2024 interview, he sounded slightly regretful, mostly because 1) he got caught, and 2) he was afraid of what would happen to him.

“I came here to the United States because of persecution in my country … But they’re doing the same thing to me in the United States – persecuting me,” he told the Post in the interview from an Ohio jail.

During the video sit-down, the Post reported that “five scowling inmates looked in his direction, with some indecipherably shouting at him.”

“What is happening?” Moreno said. “I am afraid they’re going to kill me. They’re coming for my life – anyone!”

He claimed during the interview that he was just playing a “character” in the videos.

“The person who is in my videos, my character, is not the same person as Leonel Moreno. I am a different person. We can’t confuse one with the other. We can’t confuse my character with my real life,” he said.

“I have a sarcastic, dark humor [in the videos]. That’s my job … Leonel Moreno is the opposite,” he said. “If Leonel Moreno commits a crime or something then they would be right, but it’s because of my work, so this is unfair … Social media is my job.”

It’s worth noting, however, that he told the Post they should contact his wife, from whom he is now separated, in order to “charge” for a “good interview” with him. (The Post, like most other journalistic institutions, doesn’t pay for interviews.)

There’s also the problematic issue of an investigation by the U.S. federal government, the Post said, which was ” also probing Moreno’s alleged service as a sergeant of the Venezuelan general directorate of military intelligence,” adding that “the migrant influencer later testified that he was a rank-and-file member of the Venezuelan navy, according to sources.”

Keep in mind that dozens have been killed in prison riots in Venezuela under the Chávez-Maduro regime, and the government is not averse to allegedly letting problematic prisoners die off — especially after an attempt at election-fixing last year wasn’t bought by even the most credulous foreign or domestic observers, but still kept Maduro in power, if barely.

It’s worth noting that, in the wake of opposition to the nakedly rigged results, Cabello was appointed as the minister for the country’s justice apparatus — such as it might be — in part to oversee a crackdown called “Operation Knock-Knock,” which was what they said would happen to anyone who was caught opposing the government in public.

“Knock knock! Don’t be a crybaby … You’re going to Tocorón [a jail],” Maduro said at an August 2024 rally.

While I have genuine sympathy for most of the people receiving those knocks and getting swift and harsh justice, this is tempered a bit by Moreno’s antics in the United States. Again, I don’t encourage it, and when Maduro’s evil regime is eventually toppled, him and Cabello should be knocked-knocked into Tocorón for the rest of their appointed days upon this vale of tears.

That being said, it’s difficult to feel sympathy for Moreno; his predicament falls under the aegis of “play stupid games, win stupid prizes.” Those prizes will be severe, unusually enduring, and rebarbative — but if you’re a Venezuelan illegal immigrant in a country that could legally kick you out at any time, perhaps your chosen employment shouldn’t involve making videos inciting other illegal immigrants to steal houses or charge up medical tabs to “Papa Biden.” Merely throwing that out there.

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