<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655434228883,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000180-1937-dba2-a7ba-39b778700000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655434228883,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000180-1937-dba2-a7ba-39b778700000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55434187", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1034332"} }); ","_id":"00000181-6f91-db25-adf7-7f9b93380000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedThe scenario is common in Texas: A speeding vehicle with tinted windows is pulled over by law enforcement who notice a dozen people lying down in the back seat. The teenage driver has no explanation for where he is going or what he is doing.
Illegal border smuggling has been happening for decades, but the past year has brought a new phenomenon — minors recruited via social media to transport migrants into the interior of the United States.
“The ad will say, ‘Anyone looking to make easy money, contact us,’” said Sheriff Brad Coe of Kinney County, which is on the border. “Cartels will say, ‘Go to south Texas to pick up some people. We’ll give you $1,000 a head.’”
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Tiny Kinney County, population 3,129, has seen an explosion of illegal crossings throughout its rural landscape. In February, 206 people were identified, compared to 28 a year ago. The entire southern border is poised to experience 18,000 illegal crossings a day in the coming months, Coe said.
Children use apps including TikTok, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook to communicate with smugglers. The average age is 14 to 16, and Coe has arrested children living as far away as Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
“We’ve had kids from broken homes with mom working two jobs and dad’s in jail. The lure of easy money is what does it,” Coe said. “They get anywhere from $500 to $2,000 a head. The cartels will give them an address and say, ‘Pull up here and honk your horn twice.’”
Texas law enforcement has been arresting children on state smuggling charges because the federal government does not prosecute them, according to both Coe and Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council.
Smuggling of people is a third-degree felony with punishment of up to five years in prison, Coe said.
“We have a lot of teenage smugglers everywhere,” Judd said. “We don’t even prosecute them for a traffic accident. The U.S. attorney will leave it to the states — 100% of the time, they do not prosecute.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice declined to comment when asked about prosecuting teenage smugglers. TikTok did not return a request for comment.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is attempting to quell this pipeline at its head by going after the social media companies. He sent an 11-page demand letter to TikTok on Feb. 18 asking for the Chinese-owned social media giant to “identify all policies, practices, steps and procedures in place, including the effective date, to protect children from sexual exploitation and human trafficking on TikTok.”
The letter asked for an exhaustive collection of data, including the number of posts, comments, and videos that were removed due to sex and labor trafficking. If Paxton can prove that TikTok is complicit, he plans to sue it.
“We have reports from state police that TikTok is used by cartels and other smugglers to transport people and drugs,” Paxton told the Washington Examiner. “We are all trying to step in and fill in gaps. We have a totally open border and have to protect Texans the best way we can.”
Paxton criticized the Biden administration for creating a border where state taxpayers must pick up the tab to curtail the crossings.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“The Biden administration’s main goal is to get people across the border as soon as possible, and they don’t care what the consequences are,” he said. “The consequences of our children don’t matter to the federal government.”
