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American teens are smuggling migrants illegally into the United States at alarming rates.Money is the No. 1 reason that juveniles are entering into transnational crime.

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas told that many of the gang members who are involved in human trafficking or drug trafficking are teenagers.

“Whether in Mexico or in the United States, there are tragically a lot of teenage gang members who the cartels utilize directly for criminal activity,” Cruz said.

He called the exacerbation of the issue the “deliberate” results of the Biden administration lacking federal immigration policies.

McIntyre, like the other law enforcement officials, said social media ads on services like Snapchat are driving this uptick due to the encryption and ease for teens to easily get involved..

Ads shared show recruiters posting photos with wads of cash, calling it “easy money” to drive to checkpoints in cities like Douglas and Sierra Vista.

“That’s what’s driving it, plain and simple,” he said. “If you can get paid $1,500 a body to drive down here from Phoenix and load ‘em up and get ‘em to Phoenix as fast as you can without getting caught, it’s a risk people are willing to take.”

Dannels, who has testified about border issues in front of Congress, said juveniles get involved for reasons like greed and immaturity. Making over a grand while driving three hours to Tucson can be lucrative, especially for a teen.