TikTok: The New Battleground Between Migrant Smugglers and Authorities But How?

The much loved social media site, TikTok has become an unlikely tool in the ongoing struggle between migrant smugglers and authorities in the southern US – Mexico border. These smugglers are utilizing TikTok to promote their services to migrants seeking dangerous ways to enter the US without a visa. In their short visually engaging videos, smugglers highlight desert crossings, border gaps and cutting edge transportation methods that include dune buggies, planes and even yachts to imply that they can provide safe passage for a fee.

The shift to social media has allowed for more rapid migrant smuggling involving traffickers who can access a worldwide market after previously only ever tapping into a local market from in-person methods of recruitment. TikTok videos which frequently use emojis and catchy promises like Travel safe and illegally without robbing our people, appeal directly to vulnerable migrants searching for ways to enter the US illegally.

Soary is one example of a smuggler who works as part of a network of smugglers between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso who has found TikTok to be incredibly useful as per the AP report. She will connect migrants from all over the Americas to smuggling operations by using the platform’s wide reach. With levels of migration changing and more enforcement for border security traffickers are getting creative in finding ways to operate without being caught.