U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., believes cartels have had an increased presence in recent years and children have increasingly been subject to trafficking.
He made his plea to protect these children on World Day Against Child Labor, recognized June 12, according to his Twitter post.
“As we’ve seen an explosion of cartel activity over the last few years, too many children have become victims of human & labor trafficking," Ciscomani said on Twitter. "On #WorldDayAgainstChildLabor let’s renew our charge to save children from heinous abuse at the hands of cartels. We can, and must, do better.”
In March, Ciscomani announced the introduction of the "Combating Cartels on Social Media Act" with U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., to assist in holding social media platforms accountable and help keep children safe, according to a Twitter post.
“Drug cartels are exploiting our border & using social media to recruit youth for fentanyl smuggling & human trafficking,” he said in the March Twitter post.
A number of lawmakers introduced a companion bill in the Senate, focusing on combating cartel recruitment and raising awareness among at-risk youth about the dangers associated with smuggling activities, according to a June 14 release from U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz. The legislation aims to establish a comprehensive national strategy to address these issues. If passed, the bill would impose a requirement on the Department of Homeland Security to enhance its monitoring of cartels' utilization of social media platforms.
"Many Americans are not aware of the fact that the drug cartels in Mexico, who have no regard for human life, are routinely using social media platforms to recruit Americans to assist them with their smuggling operations," President of the National Border Patrol Council Brandon Judd said in the release. "We see teenagers, some of whom are not even old enough to have a driver’s license lured into transporting illegal narcotics and aliens."
These cartels often promise youth easy money and thrills but "what these young people often get is a dangerous high-speed chase and a felony conviction. These young people literally ruin their lives before they have even reached adulthood," Judd added, according to the release.
The most common social media recruitment platform used by sex traffickers was Snapchat, followed by Instagram, according to a 2022 federal report on human trafficking. It was the second straight year that Snapchat has topped the list of most common recruitment platforms used by sex traffickers.
According to a report by the New York Post,
Human smugglers linked with the cartels, known as coyotes, also use social media platforms such as YouTube and TikTok to advertise illegal passage into the U.S., according to a June 15 report from the New York Post. Cartels often charge more than $10,000 per immigrant, making illegal transportation a multi-billion dollar industry.
