National media is abuzz with surreal tales of US citizens ejected from or arrested while trying to reclaim their own homes from criminal squatters. One viral TikTok video features a Venezuelan thug named Leonel Morino exhorting his fellow hoodlums to seize homes as squatting escalates in Atlanta, New York City, Los Angeles, and other major cities.
Droves of gangster Venezuelans terrorizing citizens brings to mind a similar problem nearly 45 years ago when Fidel Castro unleashed Cuba’s jail population on US shores. When Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) claimed in September 2022 that Venezuela had released its prisoners in the same manner, left-leaning mainstream outlets howled racism. But such gaslighting will not address the squatting scourge: The influx of Venezuelans far outstrips the Cuban crisis, and Moreno is the tip of a much larger criminal iceberg.
Scarface Redux?
This story has hit American audiences before, both in real life and in Brian De Palma's iconic fictionalized Cuban drug lord Tony Montana, portrayed by a young Al Pacino in the 1983 film Scarface. On April 20, 1980, the Castro regime encouraged Cubans to emigrate to the United States, and some 125,000 refugees fled to Florida. At the top, the movie explains, “It became evident that Castro was forcing the boat owners to carry back with them not only their relatives but the dregs of his jail population.” As explained by history.com, this had immediate political consequences:
“The boatlift also began to have negative political implications for U.S. President Jimmy Carter. When it was discovered that a number of the exiles had been released from Cuban jails and mental health facilities, many were placed in refugee camps while others were held in federal prisons to undergo deportation hearings. Of the 125,000 ‘Marielitos,’ as the refugees came to be known, who landed in Florida, more than 1,700 were jailed and another 587 were detained until they could find sponsors.”
The Biden administration faces similar tensions with Venezuela: “Refugees” could not be sent home even during COVID-19 due to the political stalemate with that socialist nation. But the number of impoverished Venezuelans (and other illegals) entering America dwarfs the Marielitos. Inflation in the troubled country exceeded 1 million percent in 2018, plunging its people into poverty. Reuters reported in October 2022 that monthly minimum Venezuelan wages of around $15 combined with permissive Biden policies spurred a massive emigration:
“Venezuelans have been one of the largest groups of migrants involved in such crossings, in part because Washington granted temporary protection status last year to those who were on U.S. soil ...
“More than 150,000 Venezuelans were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border between October 2021 and August 2022, compared with nearly 48,000 in fiscal-year 2021, according to U.S. government data. In September, over 33,000 Venezuelan individuals were encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border -- more than the number of unique crossers from Mexico and more than immigrants from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras combined, according to U.S. government data.”
An Invitation to Squat
Commonly called “squatters’ rights,” certain laws permit people to claim ownership or provide temporary housing rights after moving into houses they don’t own or pay rent for. New York City grants legal rights to squatters after they have been in a home for 30 days; if a New Yorker calls the police on someone who has moved into their home, they will not intervene. This leaves the owner with only civil recourse to evict, which takes an average of two years to complete. New York City also boasts “right to shelter” laws, which mandate homeless people to be housed at taxpayer expense. Such laws are practically an invitation to squat for unscrupulous “asylum seekers.”
Criminal activity is escalating rampantly, despite “see-no-evil” denials by Democrats who have defunded police, eliminated cash bail, softened probation and sentencing rules, “decriminalized” numerous drug and sex crimes, and suggested that “marginalized” people should be exempt from criminal prosecution.
Criminal Moral Hazard
Of course, not all Venezuelans – or immigrants, legal or illegal – are criminal agitators. But the immigration filter is turned off: Carter sent dangerous Cubans home. Biden has opened the gates to points afar, including Haiti and “deferred enforced departure” of thousands of Palestinians who would otherwise have been sent home. Rising inflation has pushed up housing, fuel, and food prices for American citizens and aliens alike. Desperation fuels criminal behavior even without ill-considered “decriminalization” and police defunding.
Americans watch in horror as Democrat-run “sanctuary” cities prioritize the well-being of “unauthorized entrants” over that of US citizens who have worked and scrimped to buy shelter in once-safe neighborhoods. Nationally, the Biden administration is deconstructing America’s borders, currency, fundamental liberties, race relations, public safety, and ability to buy and live in their own homes in order to sacrifice “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” on the toxic altar of “social justice.” This is Scarface, coming to a real-life theater near you.
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