A Life of Crime: America's Migrant-Smuggling Teens

Money-motivated children as young as 14 are being targeted by cartels on social media to traffic people illegally into the US and it's just the start of their criminal journey

- NICK MORDOWANEC

AMERICAN TEENS ARE SMUGGLING MIGRANTS illegally into the United States at alarming rates. And law enforcement officials told Newsweek that money is the No. 1 reason that juveniles are entering into transnational crime.

Human smuggling is defined by the federal government as the illegal importation of people into the country by evading federal immigration laws, as well as the unlawful transportation and harboring of noncitizens already illegally in the country. And the Biden administration has faced increasing pressure over its immigration policies.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement serves as the leading U.S. agency in combating the threat, which is described as a gateway for criminal offenses including identity theft, document and benefit fraud, gang activity, and financial fraud and terrorism.

The state of Texas, through its Department of Public Safety, has kept data on smuggling and the transportation and harboring of migrants arriving illegally, as part of its Operation Lone Star program that began in March 2021.

In April, the office of Texas Governor Greg Abbott said OLS has resulted in more than 503,800 apprehensions of migrants entering the country illegally and more than 40,400 criminal arrests, with more than 36,100 felony charges.

Data updated in January and shared by Texas DPS with Newsweek shows hundreds of arrests and charges associated with human smuggling, with ages of suspected offenders running the gamut-some offenders born in the early 1960s to as recently as 2008.

In terms of those bringing in and harboring noncitizens, the ages of those with offenses ranges from 18 to 66.

In November last year, two Dallas teens were arrested for smuggling. One of them, 17-year-old Jonathan Rodriguez, told NewsNation that they were offered $1,300 to transport. He was charged as an adult.