New reporting Wednesday from the Post Millennial found illegal migrant smugglers in Kinney County, Texas, using social media platforms like TikTok to advertise assistance for human smuggling operations.
According to the Post Millennial, the border official showed an ad on TikTok, advertising smuggling jobs for the cartel, with a label that read: “Participating in this activity could result in you or others getting hurt.”
Another advertisement read: “I need drivers based in Texas. Only serious enquiries. Good pay: $10-20K USD in 3 hours. Houston, TX, Dallas, TX, San Marcos, TX, San Marcos, San Antonio, Austin, TX, Waco, TX, Temple, TX. Follow me and DM me if interested and if you have a car or truck. We will pay more if you have a trailer.”
Border officials also showed the process of smuggling migrants past border patrol, revealing online chats between the smuggler, the organizer, and the reward or compensation. During the smuggling process, the cartel member in charge of the operation watches the live location of the smuggler and regularly checks in with them via WhatsApp, observing their drop location pin at a time, to circumvent the police receiving information from smugglers that are caught and arrested.
Border officials note that smugglers can post recruitment videos to employ American citizens to help in human smuggling on behalf of cartels. TikTok allows cartel recruiters to stay on the platform and organize human smuggling operations instead of taking them off the platform.
In counties like Kinney, police officials have prosecuted nearly 6,000 people for criminal trespass and 1,800 for human smuggling. Officials say allowing cartel recruiters to run rampant on social media platforms is extremely dangerous and irresponsible for Americans, illegal immigrants, and smugglers.
Despite the Biden administration saying that the border remains secure, border agents continue to raise concerns, prompting members of Congress in the House and Senate to call on the Biden White House to tackle the ongoing migrant influx at the southern border with Mexico.
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