Venezuelan TikToker Leonal Moreno posted a video urging his 300k+ followers to help pay legal fees for a 15-year-old Venezuelan migrant charged with attempted murder for shooting a tourist in Times Square.
Moreno’s content focuses on begging for money and living off government assistance in the US, though he says others immigrate to work while he came to “vacation.”
“I invite you to find [his] mother and [for] all of us to unite to pay the fines [so] that the young Venezuelan feels that he’s not alone during difficult moments. Remember that up there there’s a God who sees everything [down here],” Moreno said.
“An entire nation [is] on top of him instead of helping him – remember that the young man is going to be released. And he will be released, do you know why? Because he’s underage,” he said.
“You don’t know when God is going to put you in a situation like the one this young man is in,” Moreno said.
“Let’s unite forces so that this child can be free and has an opportunity,” he said.
His video supporting the migrant shooter garnered mixed reactions.
“You came to the United States to work, and I came to vacation, look at the difference. You and I didn’t come with the same purpose. You came to the United States to pay the taxes that you didn’t pay in Venezuela,” Moreno posted separately.
“I confess that I don’t like to work because it gives me allergies. You work, I don’t, but in the end, neither of us have money. They keep criticizing us because I live off of taxes that you pay monthly,” he said.
An analyst said Americans should be outraged to see laws abused by those coming not to work but collect welfare.
“Americans should be outraged to see how someone can come… and abuse the laws and benefits of America. Sadly, he’s just one of many who are ripping off the taxpayer because of our own badly written laws that allow them to collect some welfare and take years to decide asylum cases that likely will be denied,” Manhattan Institute fellow and Venezuelan native Daniel Di Martino said.
The incident adds to questions around immigration policy as the crisis at the southern border continues under the Biden administration, which says the system is broken and in need of reform.
“Congress has had a long, proud history — a bipartisan history — on immigration reform and abiding by our international treaty obligations, which we signed related to immigration. These reforms made America a nation of laws, a nation of immigrants and the strongest economy in the world. But something changed. Over time, our laws and our resources haven’t kept up with our immigration system, and it’s broken. And our politics has failed to fix it,” Biden said.
Most Popular:
FBI Informant Who Criticized Biden Gets Bad News
Drag Queen Principal Learns His Fate Amid Controversy
