On TikTok, short 30-second videos play, showcasing smugglers and migrants in dramatic scenes. The footage shows migrants dressed in camouflage trekking through arid desert landscapes, dune buggies speeding toward the U.S.-Mexico border wall, and families with children slipping through gaps in the barrier. Smugglers also display various vehicles—helicopters, planes, yachts, tunnels, and jet skis—ready for transporting people across the border. Emojis flood these posts, alongside a direct message: if you lack a U.S. visa, trust us to get you across safely.
In a time when legal immigration options have diminished and criminal groups are making vast profits from migrant smuggling, social media platforms like TikTok have become critical tools for smugglers and migrants. The videos, often exaggerated for effect, provide a rare glimpse into this hidden industry and illustrate the tactics used by trafficking networks to drive migration northward.
“With God’s help, we will keep working to make the dreams of foreigners come true. Safe travels without harming our people,” wrote one ambitious smuggler.
As President Donald Trump intensifies border enforcement and migration to the U.S. declines, smugglers say modern technologies have made their operations more adaptable and expanded their customer base. This marks a stark contrast to the past, when smugglers were typically trusted figures in each village.
“In this line of work, you have to adapt your strategies,” said Soary, a member of a smuggling network that helps migrants travel from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso, Texas. She spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid being tracked by authorities. “TikTok reaches all corners of the world.”
Soary, now 24, started her involvement in smuggling at 19 while living in El Paso. A friend offered her a job, and she used her truck to pick up migrants who had recently crossed the border. Although working with trafficking organizations carries significant risks, she said it paid her more as a single mother than her previous job, where she applied hair extensions.
As Soary established more connections on both sides of the border, she started linking people from across the Americas with a smuggling network that helped them cross borders and reach the U.S. Eventually, she began recording videos of migrants speaking to the camera after crossing the border, which she would send via WhatsApp to reassure their families that they had safely reached their destination. Nowadays, she shares those videos on TikTok.
TikTok has stated that it strictly forbids human smuggling and reports any such content to law enforcement.
The use of social media for facilitating migration became more widespread around 2017 and 2018 when activists created large WhatsApp groups to organize the first major migrant caravans from Central America to the U.S., according to Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a professor at George Mason University who specializes in the migrant smuggling industry. Over time, smugglers began infiltrating those chats and moved on to using popular platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Migrants also began documenting their dangerous journeys north, sharing videos of their treks through the jungles of the Darien Gap, which separates Colombia and Panama, as well as moments after being released by cartels that extorted them.
A 2023 study by the United Nations found that 64% of the migrants they interviewed had access to smartphones and the internet during their migration to the U.S.
Around the same time the study was released, and as TikTok’s popularity surged, Correa-Cabrera noticed a sharp increase in smuggling advertisements on the app.
“It’s a marketing strategy,” Correa-Cabrera explained. “Everyone was on TikTok, especially after the pandemic, and the numbers just grew.”
Last year, Soary, one of the smugglers, said she started posting videos of migrants and their families in the U.S., their faces obscured, along with photos of the U.S.-Mexico border and messages such as: “We’ll get you through Ciudad Juárez, no matter where you are. Fence jumping, trekking, and tunnels. Adults, children, and the elderly.”
Hundreds of videos examined show various scenes, including large stacks of cash, people crossing the border fence under the cover of night, helicopters and planes allegedly used by smugglers, and smugglers cutting open cacti in the desert for migrants to drink from. Some videos even feature images of lettuce crops with messages reading “The American fields are ready!”
The videos are often set to upbeat northern Mexican music, with lyrics that romanticize the role of traffickers. These clips are typically shared by accounts with names like “safe crossing,” “USA destinations,” “fulfilling dreams,” or “polleros,” a term commonly used for smugglers.
The narratives in these videos shift depending on the political climate and U.S. immigration policies. Under the Biden administration, some posts advertised the opportunity for migrants to access asylum applications via the CBP One app, which was later discontinued by the Trump administration.
Amid Donald Trump’s border crackdown, the tone of social media posts from smugglers has shifted. They now aim to reassure migrants, claiming that U.S. authorities have been bribed to look the other way. Some smugglers openly mock U.S. law enforcement: one video shows a smuggler smoking what seems to be marijuana near the border wall, while another insults Trump, calling him a “high-strung gringo.”
The comments section is often filled with emojis of flags and baby chickens—a symbol used among smugglers to represent migrants—as well as inquiries about prices and further details.
Cristina, a woman who migrated due to financial struggles in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, was scrolling through TikTok in December when the smuggler she had hired abandoned her and her partner in Ciudad Juárez. “In a moment of desperation, I started searching on TikTok, and with the algorithm, videos began to pop up,” she said. “It took me half an hour to find a smuggler.”
Once connected, smugglers and migrants often continue their negotiations on encrypted apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, carefully building trust. Cristina, now in Phoenix, said she chose to trust Soary, a smuggler, because she was a woman and posted videos featuring families—a tactic Soary admits to using to gain migrants’ confidence.
However, both smugglers and migrants caution that these videos can also be a trap. Authorities have warned that cartels are increasingly using kidnapping and extortion as ways to profit, and there are cases where traffickers force migrants to record videos even if they haven’t yet made it to their destination.
One smuggler, using the name “The Corporation” on TikTok, shared that other accounts often steal his network’s videos of customers claiming to have made it safely to the U.S. “And there’s not much we can do legally. I mean, it’s not like we can report them,” he joked.
This growing trend has raised alarms for organizations like the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration, which expressed concern about the increasing sophistication and evasiveness of smuggling networks. Authorities are finding it more difficult to address these new, unconventional forms of crime.
In February, a Mexican prosecutor confirmed an investigation into a network of accounts promoting smuggling via a tunnel under the border fence between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso. However, details of the investigation were not disclosed.
Meanwhile, hundreds of smuggling accounts continue to post videos showing trucks crossing the border, stacks of cash, and migrants with their faces hidden behind emojis, assuring viewers that they made it safely to the U.S.
“We’re continuing to cross, and we’re not scared,” one post declared.