Cartels turn to social media to lure Americans into human smuggling as Texas enforces stricter laws..Texas Tribune

[NowsTheTime]

Thousands of people have been arrested under Texas’ human smuggling law. Now they face at least a decade in prison under sentencing guidelines that took effect this year.
Texas law enforcement made 1,400 human smuggling arrests the year before Gov. Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in early 2021. By 2022, the number had exploded to 17,500.
A Tribune review of arrests made by the Texas Department of Public Safety — whose troopers have flooded the border under Operation Lone Star — shows that about half of the people arrested by troopers for smuggling each of the last three years were younger than 27. Teens younger than 18 accounted for roughly 6% of arrests each year.

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/20/texas-mexico-border-human-smuggling-law-mandatory-minimum-sentence/