“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.
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