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Homeowners go on vacation or business for even a week and return to find their home occupied by trespassers who fraudulently claim the right to live there. It’s happening to tens of thousands of homeowners from New York City to Atlanta to Los Angeles.
When the owner calls the police, they are told that the police cannot help. This is a civil matter and an eviction case must be filed, but because of backlogs in housing court, the case can drag on for months or even years.
Florida sheriff warns squatters, he will be their ‘worst enemy’ and the place for them is in jail
Meanwhile, the squatters live freely, destroying homes and selling off the owners’ belongings, while the owners are out on the streets.
Venezuelan TikToker Leonard Moreno appealed to illegal immigrants to take over abandoned homes and enforce squatter rights. (TikTok/Screenshot/Leonard Moreno)
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at Georgetown, said that when people call police when they see a stranger in their car, they can immediately look at the registry and see who owns the car. you will be asked to judge. They didn’t let the thief escape. But the laws overlap for homeowners.
You can thank left-wing lawmakers for violating property rights and tilting the law in favor of criminals. As a result, brazen illegal occupations are rampant.
In New York state, homeowners facing trespassers can expect to be evicted for two years. During that time, owners will be prohibited from turning off utilities, removing property, or doing anything else to evict trespassers. That’s crazy.
Jake Blumenkranz, a New York state congressman from Long Island, has introduced a bill that says squatters are not tenants and are not entitled to the same protections. Will it work in Albany? Don’t hold your breath.
But some states are quickly taking action against this crime wave.
The Florida Legislature passed a bill that would give police the power to immediately remove anyone who cannot produce a notarized lease. Georgia’s state legislature passed the Squatter Reform Act, making squatting a crime, trespassing, and handled by police rather than housing court. It is likely to pass the Senate soon.
Is there any hope for protection for homeowners from squatters in blue states like California and New York? Not from Congress. In fact, Congressional Democrats are pushing a federal housing law that would prohibit landlords from knowing whether a potential tenant has a criminal record, including past misconduct.
But there are remedies. That means filing lawsuits in federal court against states like New York and California that don’t protect property rights.
The U.S. Constitution enshrines property rights as a fundamental guarantee. And recently, a judge struck down a state law that allows trespassers to interfere with property rights.
In 2021, the Pacific Law Foundation filed a lawsuit on behalf of property owners, and the court held in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hasid that “government-authorized trespass on property” constitutes expropriation as if the government had taken the property. It was decided that directly.
Giving trespassers preferential treatment over owners is a “takeover” that violates the Fifth Amendment, which states that the government cannot infringe on your rights to your property.
There is no time to waste in acting to protect homeowners.
Leonel Moreno, a Venezuelan TikTok influencer, argues that breaking into vacant homes is the only option for illegal immigrants flooding into the United States. His now-deleted TikTok video, in which he explains how to identify vacant homes that are ready for uptake, has reached 4 million views.
surprised? Please don’t let that happen. Criminals are coming in droves from south of the border to plunder the much wealthier United States. Some enter the country illegally and are scouted by Venezuela’s Torren de Aragua gang and El Salvador’s MS-13.
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Some people enter the country on tourist visas. Law enforcement agencies are reporting a surge in South American theft rings in at least half of the U.S. states.
Of course, many immigrants are honest and hardworking. But there’s no denying that the move northward to take what you can get poses new dangers for homeowners, including the risk of squatters.
Giving trespassers preferential treatment over owners is a “takeover” that violates the Fifth Amendment, which states that the government cannot infringe on your rights to your property.
As Moreno says, “If a house is unoccupied, we can seize it.”
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Tell your legislators to act now to protect homeowners. This is the United States. Property rights are not a topic of discussion here. These are guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.
You worked for it and paid for it, so it’s yours. period.
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