Smugglers Hiring American Teens to Drive Illegal Migrants From Mexico Border

Border Patrol agents pick up four illegal aliens from Mexico after local deputies intercept their smuggling vehicle, in Brackettville, Texas, on April 8, 2022. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

Human smugglers are hiring American teens to transport illegal migrants from the Mexican border into the United States, enticing them with fast cash and promising safety from legal consequences.

Teenage drivers can earn hundreds of dollars per migrant they transport from the Mexican border according to a report by Reuters. A growing number of teenagers from Texas and California are being recruited for trafficking, and the U.S. Border Patrol has even begun recording juvenile driver data since fiscal 2021.

Roughly 25 percent of drivers caught transferring migrants in the Sunland Park-Santa Teresa region of New Mexico were children. Some teens from the area view smuggling as a way to earn extra cash and improve their lives.

A third of Sunland Park residents are children below the age of 18 who live with their grandparents. The region has three times the poverty rate when compared to national numbers.

A press release by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in February had warned about Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCO) using social media to recruit minors for their smuggling operations.

The TCOs brainwash teenagers and convince them that they won’t suffer similar consequences faced by adults if caught by law enforcement during an illegal operation. As a result, there is an increase in erratic driving by inexperienced teens during trafficking, the release said.

“This is an alarming trend because many of these teenagers underestimate the severity of the crime. Not only can they be prosecuted and sent to jail, but they also endanger lives through their actions. I encourage parents to talk to their children and educate them on the potential consequences and dangers of this trend,” said Brian S. Hastings, Chief Patrol Agent of the Rio Grande Valley Sector (RGV).

Cartels were hiring teenagers via social media platform TikTok for transporting migrants and offering sums of over $3,000 for the task, according to a Fox News report from April last year. Recruited teens were using their parents’ SUVs, without their knowledge, to transport illegal aliens.

Gerardo Galvan, patrol agent in charge of the Sunland Park area, noticed the trend of juvenile drivers engaged in transporting migrants after a 14-year-old fled away in a vehicle and crashed into a Border Patrol van in 2021.

These juveniles are told that if they go fast enough, the officers are going to stop pursuing them eventually. The majority of juvenile cases end up on probation until the age of 21 as long as the minor has not been in trouble before.

Several lawmakers and organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union have called on Border Patrol to restrict high-speed chases only to suspects who they believe have carried out a violent felony.

Galvan pointed out that agents have to avoid pursuits in residential areas and schools during busy times and ask for permission from a supervisor when conducting a chase.

There have already been 940,000 arrests for this fiscal year that began in October. As of March 22, facilities at the U.S.–Mexico border were holding more than 16,000 illegal immigrants in detention, exceeding their capacity, according to Raul Ortiz, the head of the U.S. Border Patrol.