Social media has proven to be an essential tool for traffickers transporting migrants illegally across the southern border, and money-hungry smugglers aren’t shy about bragging about their illicit activities, often flaunting their cash stash on the apps and how easy it is to elude authorities.
In August, 22 people were indicted in Arizona for recruiting truck drivers by glamorizing illegal immigrant smuggling with cash-offering Snapchat posts, many of which claimed drivers could make big bucks without the risk of arrest.
In September, an Arizona man was sentenced to 71 months in prison for transporting hundreds of illegal immigrants. Investigators found Snapchat posts in which he bragged about cramming people into overcrowded vehicles in dangerous conditions. He also used minors in certain smuggling operations.
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A Snapchat post by Nathaniel Aly Rivera, 23, of Eloy, Arizona, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to transport hundreds of illegal immigrants for financial gain, shows two guns and stacks of cash. (Department of Homeland Security investigation)
A New York Post investigation this month found that migrant smugglers are using Telegram to advertise their services to migrants in Turkey as the number of migrants entering the United States from Turkey reaches an all-time high. Turks are offered a route from Cancun to Tijuana, Mexico, that includes a flight to the U.S. and travel expenses. In advertising the crossing route, smugglers reportedly tell migrants to “don’t delay your dreams.”
According to a segment on “60 Minutes,” some Chinese migrants are using videos on the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok to learn “step-by-step instructions” for finding gaps in the border wall and hiring smugglers. Venezuelan illegal migrant Leonel Moreno has amassed a sizable following on TikTok, where he made waves by encouraging others to cross the U.S.-Mexico border and bragging about abusing the U.S. welfare system and advising people to stay put in their homes in the United States.
Messenger apps, particularly WhatsApp, have proven invaluable to smugglers, who use the platforms’ free phone and video calling, as well as free text and video messaging features, to communicate with migrants. Real-time geolocation technology also makes it easier to plan trips, and migrants only need a Wi-Fi connection to use the app.
Tom Homan, a former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said social media companies need to do more to stop smugglers from using their apps to help illegally cross the border. Social media companies say they do all they can to stop this and have strict rules in place.
“Some of the Mexican drug cartels are like Fortune 500 companies. They operate in about 40 countries around the world, primarily through drug cartels, and they use the latest technology,” Homan told Fox News Digital. “They have drones, they have military-grade weaponry, they use social media to hire U.S. citizens and others to smuggle foreign nationals.”
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A Snapchat post from a migrant smuggler in Arizona shows stacks of $100 bills. (U.S. Attorney’s Office, Arizona)
Homan said social media companies needed to crack down on smugglers, and noted that his own social media accounts had previously been restricted for posting political content.
“Why aren’t these platforms policing this behavior, which is a criminal act? This is not opinion-based behavior, it’s a criminal act,” Homan said. “Smuggling illegal immigrants into our country and transporting them around the country is a felony. Social media needs to step up their efforts to stop this behavior.”
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, if convicted of conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants for profit, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. In fiscal year 2023, Customs and Border Protection encountered 2,475,669 people attempting to enter the country along the southwest border, the highest number ever recorded and a 4.07% increase from the previous year. However, it is unclear how many of those migrants and smugglers were using social media along the way.
“When they go to pick up four or five people, do they know they’re carrying fentanyl,” Homan said of smugglers. “Do they know if they’re victims of human trafficking? Are some of the women going to be forced into the sex trade as soon as they get to their final destination? Or if there are children, are they going to be forced into labor?”
Homan cited a report from the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General released earlier this year that found the department had failed to contact more than 85,000 unaccompanied migrant children who had been apprehended at the southern border and released into care.
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“We’ve already found a lot of them in forced labor in meat processing plants. We’ve found a lot of them in forced labor on farms. We’ve found women who were sex slaves, massage parlors, etc. So when you hire people to do this kind of work through social media, they could be unknowingly transporting people who are transporting fentanyl, which has taken the lives of 148,000 people. They could be transporting terrorists. They don’t know who they are, they just go down and pick people up, put them in their car and take them somewhere.”
Migrants are processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (John Michael Raasch/Fox News Digital)
Representatives for Snapchat, TikTok, and Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, told Fox News Digital that the companies have policies in place to crack down on this content and remove it if it appears on their platforms.
A Snapchat spokesperson told Fox Digital that the company has a “zero tolerance policy towards human trafficking” and is taking a proactive approach to combating human trafficking on its platform.
“We use proactive detection tools to find and immediately remove relevant content, act quickly on in-app reports, and work closely with law enforcement to assist with investigations and strengthen our efforts to prevent abuse of our platform,” a Snapchat spokesperson said. “We encourage our community to report this type of content to law enforcement directly or through our reporting tools.”
Meanwhile, digital technology has made it easier for migrant smugglers to exchange money, goods and information, according to a study published by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a U.N. group that promotes “humane and orderly migration.” The study surveyed 531 migrants crossing the southern border, of whom 64% had access to a smartphone and the internet during their journey.
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Migrants cross the Rio Grande River at the U.S.-Mexico border in Piedras Negras, Mexico, on October 6, 2023. (Alejandro Segara/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“In the desert we were not allowed to contact the smugglers to avoid our communications being traced,” a migrant travelling through Mexico told IOM. “Once we reached towns we were in real time contact with the smugglers. [location] We got in touch with a smuggler who gave us directions through a messaging app.”
Homan has called for Congress to hold hearings on the matter and would like representatives from social media companies to testify about how they are dealing with the situation.
“We’re talking about safety and security in this country. What greater cause is there to call for action?” Homan said.
“Call these people out and find out why they’re allowing this to happen. People who make political statements get banned from social media, but people who engage in criminal activity don’t get banned from social media. This is ridiculous.”
