The Trump administration deported an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who had gained a substantial online following by sharing videos of himself flaunting large sums of money and encouraging migrants to take over American homes using squatters’ rights laws.
Leonel Moreno, 26, told his audience he planned to make a business out of selling them for a profit.
“He has been deported,” the Trump administration announced Friday on its @RapidResponse47 X account.
In one of his videos, he disdainfully remarked, “You’re hurt because I make more than you without much work while you work like slaves, understand? That’s the difference between you and me. I’m always going to make lots of money without much work, and you’re always going to be exploited and miserable and insignificant.”
After accumulating around 500,000 followers, TikTok eventually closed his account. Despite this, he continued to post videos on platforms like Facebook and Instagram until his arrest in Ohio last year.
Venezuelan migrant Leonel Moreno speaking to his social media followers. (TikTok @leitooficial_25)
ICE picked him up after his online profile exploded, but he spent months in custody under the Biden administration. Now, he is gone.
A federal judge ordered his removal in September, but the Venezuelan government refused to accept deportation flights under the Biden administration.
He had originally been released into the U.S. in 2022 under the border parole system after crossing into the country illegally near Eagle Pass, Texas.
