“Migrant influencer” Leonel Moreno, who went viral on TikTok for encouraging illegal border crossers to squat in US homes, was ordered deported by an immigration judge — but he likely won’t be kicked out of the country anyway because of a diplomatic row.
An Ohio-based immigration judge ordered the 27-year-old Venezuelan migrant, who also waved around wads of cash on social media and flaunted what he said were US government handouts, to be removed from the US on Sept. 9, according to Homeland Security sources.
Moreno crossed the southern border illegally into Eagle Pass, Texas, on April 23, 2022.
He was released into the country but failed to appear for required check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), leading to his arrest in Columbus, Ohio, in March.
But despite the judge’s decree, a halt on deportation flights to Venezuela could hinder the order
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 country, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The US said Caracas had failed to restore democratic order, the outlet explained.
The almost weekly flights from the US to Venezuela came to a halt in late January, US officials told the Journal.
President Nicolás Maduro’s administration followed through on its threats to kill an agreement reached last October for flights to go into the country, after the US reimposed economic sanctions on the country, saying Caracas had failed to restore democratic order, the outlet explained
There are also no direct commercial flights from the US to Venezuela after the Department of Transportation suspended them in 2019, citing reports of unrest and violence.
Meanwhile, a new wave of migrant crime from the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has emerged in US cities, including in New York City — where a 19-year-old gangbanger was accused of shooting two NYPD officers in June.
Moreno isn’t linked to the gang, but still, he 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.
“I didn’t cross the Rio Grande to work like a slave,” Moreno said in one Instagram clip while waving around $100 bills.
Moreno also admitted to using his 1-year-old US citizen baby as a prop in his viral posts, one of which was taken at the hospital after his daughter’s birth.
He bragged that he and his wife didn’t pay anything to have their daughter thanks to “Papa Biden.”
Intelligence officials investigating Moreno’s case have also alleged he was a sergeant of the Venezuelan general directorate of military intelligence, according to sources.
He later claimed in court that he was a rank-and-file soldier in the Venezuelan Navy, sources said.
Moreno remains in custody at the Geauga County Jail in Ohio, where he’s been laying low, Geauga County Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand previously told The Post.
The migrant also spoke to The Post from jail in April, where he wailed about being a victim of unjust “persecution.”
“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,” Moreno moaned.
“It’s all misinformation in the media about me. They’re defaming me. They’re misrepresenting me in the news … I am a good father, a good husband, a good son, a good person, humble, respectful to people who respect me,” he added.
