Advertising on TikTok has taken off post-pandemic as a way that smugglers market their services. Recently, a man was charged with at least a dozen counts of allegedly smuggling people from Canada into the U.S. He recorded and uploaded their testimonials to TikTok.
Read the full transcript below:
Molly Anderson: This is Northeast Notebook. I’m Molly Anderson. TikTok says it has 170 million monthly active users in the U.S. And, while they’re tuning into the latest trend or watching their favorite influencer, they may also encounter videos of something illicit: human smuggling.
Lucy Tompkins: And it turns out this is actually a pretty common thing and has really taken off sort of post-pandemic as a way that smugglers market themselves.
Molly Anderson: In one recent case, a man was charged with a dozen counts of smuggling for transporting people from Canada into the U.S. He recorded and uploaded the testimonials of his clients to TikTok.
Audio from viajes.7271 TikTok account [Spanish to English translation]: “We highly recommend them; everything went very well, and the whole process was very secure.”
Molly Anderson: So, how is social media changing the landscape of immigration? Lucy Tompkins is a Report for America Corps Member covering immigration, new Americans, and the international border for Seven Days in Vermont.
Lucy Tompkins: I'm paying pretty close attention to cases in our federal court that have to do with smuggling or illegal border crossing. I've seen time and again that people are finding smugglers via Facebook or via TikTok and that's how they end up connecting with them.
Molly Anderson: Lucy has been following the case of Sergio Gomez Romero, a man who lives in Queens, New York. He was arrested in May on charges of smuggling people from Canada into northern Vermont.
Lucy Tompkins: Prosecutors say he's the most prolific human smuggling coordinator operating in the state. But what stood out to me about this case is the way that he was advertising this service, which was by having the drivers who would pick up people who were just smuggled over the border, having the drivers record testimonial videos of the migrants who had just crossed saying, you know, “Thank you so much for helping us get across. We just walked across from Montreal to Vermont. Everything went really smoothly. We really recommend this service.” And then these videos were uploaded to a TikTok page run by this alleged smuggler as a way to, you know, promote his business.
Molly Anderson: What Lucy is describing is not uncommon on social media platforms like TikTok. The account alleged to be operated by Romero is now privated, meaning followers must request access to view their content. But Lucy says when one smuggling account shuts down or goes private, another takes its place.
Lucy Tompkins: I found this account because I was looking for Viajes Tony and for that hashtag which this new account is using and this new account says, “Hey, our other account is inactive, but come join us here and we're at your service.” So, I think this is a pattern where TikTok might take down an account. They’ve told other journalists that they do try to take down accounts that are promoting illegal services like this. But a new one crops up and so far, it's still active and still posting videos.
Molly Anderson: A simple search of ‘viajes7277’ - the handle associated with the original account - yielded a number of results when I searched it up on TikTok, including an account called ‘viajes. 7271’. It appears to be unassociated with Gomez Romero, but posts similar content. Here's one from September 26th.
Audio from viajes.7271 TikTok account [Spanish to English translation]: “We arrived September 25th, a Friday here at Finis. Thanks to the buddy, thanks to the buddy.”
Molly Anderson: What you're hearing is a group of people thanking ‘the buddy’ for their service. The video shows all eight of them sitting on the floor of a small room as someone else records them.
Lucy Tompkins: There are so many comments on the videos saying, “Hey, I'm interested, can I have more information?” Um, “I want to do this.” And so, it's reaching people and I think that's the effect that they want to have. And it turns out that this is actually a pretty common thing and has really taken off, sort of post-pandemic as a way that smugglers market themselves.
Molly Anderson: And while these accounts may be visible to millions of people, they're not always noticed by law enforcement. Lucy says federal agents did not find out about Gomez Romero’s alleged smuggling operations through social media.
Lucy Tompkins: They actually found him after stopping drivers who were picking up migrants after they'd crossed the border and then in interviews with those drivers, they learned that the person kind of coordinating the trip was this man in New York City.
Molly Anderson: And after watching the videos, Lucy was left with some questions.
Lucy Tompkins: Did they know that in recording these videos that they would be posted so publicly? What was sort of the power dynamic maybe between the smugglers taking these videos and the migrants who just crossed?
Molly Anderson: Before TikTok, smugglers relied on other platforms. Encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp were used to coordinate routes during the Central American migrant caravans nearly a decade ago. According to reporting in Fast Company, smugglers took notice of this and started using TikTok during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to advertise their services.
Lucy Tompkins: At that time, I think it was all happening much more out in the open because border enforcement wasn’t as locked down as it is now.
Molly Anderson: In the conversations around human smuggling in northern Vermont, there's one otherwise unremarkable, rural road that gets a lot of attention.
Benjamin Vernon: A couple of years ago when Roxham Road outside of Champlain was a well-known, irregular port of entry. There was a lot of information on social media about that that was disseminated pretty widely.
Molly Anderson: Benjamin Vernon is a Supervising Attorney in the Immigration Unit at the Hiscock Legal Aid Society in Syracuse, New York. He remembers another instance where social media had a hand in informing people who were looking to cross into the US.
Benjamin Vernon: So, we would see people from all over the US end up in, say, Plattsburgh because they’d gotten information through various social media networks and things like that.
Molly Anderson: Plattsburgh, located on the western shores of Lake Champlain, is about 25 miles south of the US–Canada border. But while people appearing in these videos seem thankful and comfortable, Lucy says that's not consistent with the realities of illegal border crossings. The Department of Homeland Security launched ‘Operation Rotten Apple’ in July, targeting non-citizens across New York. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin highlighted the results in a September press conference.
Markwayne Mullin: Over the last 30 days, uh, Operation Rotten Apple has taken over 2100 criminals off our street. That’s the worst of the worst.
Molly Anderson: Lucy says stricter border enforcement means smugglers may undertake more remote, covert crossings that are more dangerous.
Lucy Tompkins: They’re crossing through the forest in Vermont which is remote and can be, particularly in the winter, really dangerous. Up here in Vermont and, you know, in northern New York, we’ve have had several instances of migrants trying to cross the border and getting lost and drowning or freezing to death.
Molly Anderson: And Benjamin Vernon from the Hiscock Legal Aid Society says that since immigration enforcement has ramped up in the US, immigration attorneys are hearing less from local partner organizations that provide aid to and work on behalf of immigrants.
Benjamin Vernon: It’s sort of, it’s quieter, really. I think because the people who are there are hunkered down, scared of enforcement. There’s just heavy presence of CBP and ICE up there. With the drastic sort of restrictions of the legal immigration system, there are just as a matter of fact I think there are fewer non-citizens seeking legal help. I think that’s been the big thing that we’ve noticed is just a decrease in outreach to us and outreach to our community partners of people seeking legal services.
Lucy Tompkins: I'll be following this case of Sergio Romero to see whether he’s convicted and whether there are more cases of smuggling that come up in Vermont. And, I’ll be watching for what happens to this particular account and whether it continues to post these videos and operate unaffected.
Molly Anderson: Northeast Notebook is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It was produced by me, Molly Anderson. Our Executive Producer is Lucas Willard. Our editor is Diane DeVore. Music by Eduardo Rivera. Consider subscribing to Northeast Notebook wherever you get your podcasts. And if you like the show, take a second to rate and review. It really does help others find us. Thanks for listening.
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