Smugglers Use TikTok to Advertise Illicit Migration Services

What Happened?

TikTok videos have become a popular advertising platform for smugglers, drug cartels, and other illicit actors seeking to provide migrants with illegal pathways to the United States. 

The videos, which are often less than thirty seconds long, offer viewers a simple message: if you can’t get into the United States legally, there are plenty of illicit smugglers who can get you safely onto American soil illegally.

One such video, quoted by the Associated Press, claimed “With God’s help, we’re going to continue working to fulfil the dreams of foreigners. Safe travels without robbing our people.” 

Why it Matters

The flow of illegal migrants from Central and South America north to the United States is due to several factors. But one factor that often gets overlooked is the slick advertising campaigns smugglers use to attract would-be migrants. 

Despite the trek through difficult and dangerous terrain, most migrants heading north to the United States often have phones or other mobile devices. Smugglers post videos on platforms like TikTok which enable them to reach thousands or even millions, of potential migrants. 

While legal pathways to immigration have faced reductions due to the stricter policies of the Trump Administration, smugglers have been eager to advertise illegal paths.

One such smuggler, who spoke to the Associated Press anonymously, said “In this line of work, you have to switch tactics. TikTok goes all over the world.” Not only have smugglers tactics changed, so have the identities of the smugglers themselves.

While it used to be common for smugglers to be affiliated with larger organized crime syndicates like drug cartels, today more and more smugglers operate independently. Single individuals advertise their services through social media and transport small groups of migrants illegally. Such entrepreneur-smugglers usually have a single motivation, to make money.

Many individual smugglers can earn far more money transporting people across the border illegally then they can in the local job market. While the risks are higher, so are the potential paydays. 

Entrepreneur-smugglers are also more difficult for law enforcement to identify because they often have no criminal history, so they don’t show up in law enforcement databases. 

Social media-enabled illegal immigration poses other challenges to law enforcement officials as well, because the number of platforms and content online is so vast no government could possibly even view it all, much less control it.

Sometimes the more successful individual smugglers will connect with larger networks, creating an opportunity for both to make more money.

How it Affects You

Platforms like TikTok have strict policies prohibiting the use of their services to enable smuggling or human trafficking. But because the amount of content is so vast, even the platforms themselves can’t police all of it. 

Short videos can be posted for a few days or hours then taken down after they’ve already served their purpose but well before either tech platforms or law enforcement have a chance to view them.  

Social media has altered the landscape of illegal immigration in ways that governments are still struggling to understand and respond to.