U.S. teens recruited to drive migrants from Mexican border

Reuters via Yahoo ^ | April 11, 2022 | By Andrew Hay, Nathan Frandino and Adria Malcolm

[Oldeconomybuyer]

SUNLAND PARK, N.M., (Reuters) - Seventeen-year-old Santi sits in his car outside shops in Sunland Park, New Mexico, watching a pulsing blue dot on his mobile telephone.

Human smugglers have hired him to pick up migrants here, less than a mile from the Mexican border, and take them to nearby El Paso, Texas.

His shiny red mobile phone pings every 15 seconds. He and the migrants share locations, as a contact on the U.S. side messages instructions.

The high schooler with a high-fade haircut is among a growing number of U.S. teenagers in communities from Texas to California recruited to transport migrants crossing the Southwest border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Around one in four drivers caught smuggling migrants last year in the Sunland Park-Santa Teresa area were children, most U.S. citizens living locally, according to U.S. Border Patrol, which began recording the juvenile driver data in fiscal year 2021.

Mexican youth have long guided migrants into the United States. Recruiters tell both Mexican and U.S. teens they are unlikely to face legal consequences because they are minors, according to around two dozen government and law enforcement officials, attorneys, migrant advocates and local residents Reuters spoke to.

U.S. children as young as 14 learn of the work from social media and friends and transport mainly Mexican adults.

The young drivers can earn hundreds of dollars per migrant, and locals jokingly call them "Ubers." Some see it as a way to get ahead in Sunland Park, a working-class town with three times the national poverty rate where a third of residents are under 18 and many children live with grandparents.

[Fester Chugabrew]

Upon first reading I thought the object was to drive the “migrants” back into Mexico, i.e. drive them away from the USA.

[SisterK]

Border Patrol cannot pursue them if they drive over 100mph

the kids know this

for the last 6 months, in my county, there has been approximately one traffic accident per month, sometimes with fatalities, and all caused by high speed juvenile coyotes

[GingisK]

The fun will start once the teens get abused in any way by their passengers. It will happen.

[Organic Panic]

S hole people s ing on America. Deport every one of them.

[Vaduz]

With almost 2 million illegals allowed and will be counted for the next two elections there should be two million votes removed from the democrat list it’s not rigging it’s counting.

[Glad2bnuts]

I was getting ready to donate to the cause, then I realized they were recruited to move invaders into the center of our Nation. Nation, meaning group of people bound together in common history and cause. These invaders are none of those things....I said THINGS. They deserve to be repelled like mosquitos from a BBQ.