The Biden Administration has empowered migrant smugglers to the extent that they are blatantly offering services on sites and social media apps like TikTok and YouTube. According to a report from The New York Post, migrant-smuggling “influencers” are cashing in on this $13B industry.
Some charge desperate migrants $10,000 to be smuggled into the U.S.
From The New York Post:
The cartel-linked human smugglers, known as coyotes in Spanish, post high-quality promo videos showing them escorting migrants across rivers and customers smiling inside secret “stash houses” once purportedly over the border.
The social media-savvy outlaws have public profiles on sites such as TikTok and YouTube, where they flaunt their schemes — which make a mockery of the US immigration system — under the noses of border protection officers.
Anyone can open their phone and with a few clicks talk to a coyote via their social media account and receive a quote for slipping an immigrant illegally into the US, The Post has found.
One alleged human smuggler told The Post he charges 180,000 Mexican pesos (around $10,500) to sneak a Mexican person into the US.
“Cartels are trying to get workers [using TikTok]. They’re trying to recruit people to help them out. [They] show lots of money, they show lots of drinking, partying, and everything else,” Commander Jorge Esparza of the Brooks County Sheriff Department told the Washington Free Beacon during a trip to the border last year. “The way I look at it is, if social media companies are getting mad at somebody for making a comment about race or sexuality or something, I think they should be held more accountable” for what cartels are posting.
More over at The New York Post:
Today's cover: Brazen migrant smugglers offer services through TikTok, with videos promoting $13B industry https://t.co/9XzCsRe3jO pic.twitter.com/xQMmhxOcIP
— New York Post (@nypost) June 16, 2023