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Sebastian Gamino-Solis, who was caught with five illegal immigrants in his BMW this month, told a Border Patrol officer that he was responding to an ad looking for drivers while trolling. Facebook.

He needed to find some work and exchanged information. Then the phone call came: he was going to a park in Chula Vista, California, to gather people. He would receive $2,300 per person.

It was stopped before it could complete the delivery.

Social media platforms are increasingly playing a role in the chaos at the border. Smuggling cartels use social media to encourage prospective immigrants to make the journey and to queue up guides and drivers who transport people across the border, keeping them in stash houses and dragging them deep into the United States.

Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has urged major social media platforms to shut down ads. He said the government is doing its best, but we need your help.

“Children are lured by the promise of quick cash to aid cartels in their smuggling operations, break traffic laws to evade the police, endanger themselves, passengers and innocent passengers of other vehicles, and ultimately jeopardize their futures as they respond to an ad. on social media,” he wrote on Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat and Metawhich works Facebook.

The governor acknowledged that companies have ways to flag users for illegal posts, but said “we need stronger action to prevent this activity that is drawing our youth into a life of crime.”

The Times reached out to all four companies Mr. Ducey contacted.

Only Meta replied. he said Facebook tries to stop messages whenever possible.

“We ban content that proposes or aids human trafficking, invests in technology and people to proactively identify it, and remove it from our platform when we find it,” the company said in a statement.

Border law enforcement officials feel that smuggling cartels are particularly interested in hiring young people to drive, and – often for good reason – that federal officials won’t be tough on young people caught trafficking.

Border Patrol agents say 13-year-old drivers are being recruited.

Mr Ducey said such stories oblige social media companies to do more to proactively screen smuggling ads.

“Just as your companies are working to protect young people from obscenity and violence on your social media platforms, it’s time to protect them from incitement to crime,” he wrote.

He said removing the ads would also bring down the cartels.

The rate at which drivers transport illegal immigrants from the Arizona border to Phoenix can range from a few hundred dollars per trip to as much as $2,000 per person. Truck drivers in Texas can make tens of thousands of dollars for a single load.

Terrence Xavier Jones, who was arrested this month while carrying 110 illegal immigrants at a Border Patrol checkpoint near Laredo, Texas, told agents he received $60,000 for a trip to San Antonio, court documents show.

Facebook, Snapchat and WhatsApp are the most widely used social media apps, according to the Washington Times database of trafficking prosecutions. Smugglers also used TikTok, Telegram and Craigslist.

The Times analyzed federal smuggling prosecutions last year in Arizona, where immigrants are held as witnesses, and found that smartphones and social media apps were used to facilitate smuggling in about 70% of cases.

Smuggling coordinators will use apps to guide migrants across the border and to pickup locations. Immigrants would meet with hired drivers, often via social media.

Cartels and those who work for them get cash during the border surge.

To cross into Arizona, immigrants pay the cartel a “mafia fee” of between $1,000 and $2,500 for the pass alone, according to The Times’ database.

Immigrants will then pay more to cover all the people who shepherd them along the way, including drivers who bring them into the US from deeper in the border. Payments between $8,000 and $10,000 are typical for Mexicans. Those from Central America can pay $16,000 for the trip.

Just as social media platforms make it easier for cartels to smuggle, they can also help feds bring lawsuits against some of their employees.

In Arizona, Isaiah Lorenzo Brinkley was sentenced last week to 75 months in prison for coordinating smuggling efforts, including when a driver escaped Border Patrol agents, smashed a vehicle, killed a Colombian adult immigrant and seriously injured a child.

Department of Homeland Security investigators examined the deceased driver’s Snapchat account and found that he had been hired by Brinkley.