Human smugglers are using social media to their advantage as they move migrants from Central America into the United States.
“When the migrant caravans started to arrive, myself and my team found out that a lot of the communication was done through WhatsApp. … This is the way that people communicate normally,” Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, associate professor at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, told Fox News this week.
SMUGGLERS PUSH TRIPLE-DIGIT GROUPS OF FAMILIES AND CHILDREN ACROSS BORDER, THREATENING BIDEN AGENDA
Correa-Cabrera has been studying the connection between human smuggling and social media for the past two years and says that Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram are popular with the traffickers.
“Some of these WhatsApp accounts were created just weeks before the caravan formed, and then when the … life of the caravan was over, the WhatsApp list that we were tracking was over,” she added.
One migrant, named Jose, told a Fox News affiliate that he came across several Facebook pages where human smugglers, also known as coyotes, were advertising their services.
Jose said he saw messages that said, “Totally safe, legal and illegal crossings into the U.S. pay once you get there” or “Next trip to the U.S. is March 25, you only have to walk 15 hours we can cross you through Sonora,” and “We can walk or drive you across.”
Some of the Facebook posts advertise specific costs for transportation into the U.S., ranging from $3,500 to $8,500.
Former Homeland Security officer Andy Shuttleworth says traffickers have had a social media presence for years, but it is evolving and getting more sophisticated.
“They now have media-savvy folks that are establishing brand recognition. ‘Hey, we can get you across. Look at our success rate. Hey, we’re cheaper than the other guy,’” Shuttleworth said.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
Human trafficking at the border has become an increased concern over the past few months as a significant influx of migrants, including a record number of unaccompanied minors, has caused a humanitarian crisis at the border.
Republicans, who blame President Joe Biden’s loose immigration policies for the surge, have argued that the president is helping human traffickers with his immigration agenda that involves releasing unaccompanied minors to adult sponsors who are not biologically related.
HuffPost reported in 2014 that roughly 80% of women and children who cross into the U.S. illegally are raped during the journey.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
This week, several Republican senators put forward a bill aimed at combating human trafficking that would crack down on illegal immigrants who fabricate family ties or refuse a DNA test at the border.
“Unaccompanied children are passing through our border with the help of strangers and members of cartels, putting these children at an increased risk of sexual abuse and human trafficking,” Sen. Thom Tillis, one of the bill’s sponsors, said. “This is completely unacceptable, and the Biden administration’s response has been severely lacking.”
