From video game chats, to social media, to meet-ups at nightclubs; human smuggling is not as far from your front door as you may think. Smuggling operations are using the crisis along the southern border to entice people from all walks life into risking their freedom for quick cash.
“We’ve had people from Louisiana, Florida, California, New York that have made their way to the border to smuggle illegal immigrants,” said Lt. Chris Olivarez with the Texas Dept. of Public Safety. “These are people that are not your typical criminals, they don’t have criminal backgrounds, these are first offenders.”
According to DPS, more than 7,300 people have been arrested on smuggling related charges since the start of Operation Lone Star in March 2021. Those arrested range in age from 13 to 77, according to DPS’s data. Smuggling is not new problem in Texas, but Olivarez said there’s been a shift in the type of person willing to cash in on the smuggling trade.
“We’ve arrested people that were attorneys, in the medical field, even soldiers; we arrested one of our own National Guard soldiers that was involved in human smuggling,” said Olivarez.
When KPRC 2 recently visited Kinney County, near Eagle Pass, Galveston County sheriff’s deputies pulled over the 19-year-old driver of a car that initially refused to stop. Once the car stopped, the driver ran off, along with one of his passengers. Two remaining passengers immediately surrendered. Deputies and state troopers eventually caught the driver, Kevin Sanchez, and the third passenger.
“The driver said he wasn’t driving but I saw him get out of the driver’s seat so clearly lying,” said Galveston County sheriff’s deputy Gabriel Sanchez.
Sheriff’s deputies said all three passengers are believed to be in the country illegally and were handed over to Border Patrol agents. Sanchez was arrested and is facing charges of smuggling and fleeing from police according to Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe.
Sanchez lives on Houston’s westside and denied smuggling anyone when KPRC 2 tried to speak with him at his apartment. Sanchez told us the men in his car were hitchhikers he met at a gas station and who were headed to Houston.
“Why didn’t you stop for the for the police when they tried to pull you over, and why did your passengers try to run?” KPRC 2 Investigator Robert Arnold asked.
“I was just scared because I didn’t know why I was getting pulled over, I was so scared. I have never really been in that situation that’s why,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez said he was scared police would shoot him, and again claimed he was just doing a favor for the men by giving them a ride.
“Do you normally pick-up complete and total strangers to give rides to?” asked Arnold.
“Yeah, I used to, I’m a good person, I try to do favors for people,” Sanchez said.
Retired Customs and Border Protection Agent Douglas A’Hern is now a defense attorney in Houston who has represented several people charged with smuggling.
“How many of your clients are under 18 or under 21?” asked Arnold.
“I think it’s probably probably about 30 to 35-percent are that young,” said A’Hern.
“Are you getting more clients?” asked Arnold.
“Oh, yes, right now my alien smuggling cases outweigh drug cases,” said A’Hern.
“How are they recruiting these young kids?” asked Arnold.
“I would compare it to an intelligence operation for recruiting human sources of information,” said A’Hern. “They find out what it is that that motivates them to maybe want to make that decision, whether it be drugs or sex or money,” said A’Hern. “A lot of times I’ve seen them communicate through Xbox, PlayStation, Snapchat.”
Olivarez also said smuggling operations have become very adept at recruiting young drivers through social media. Both A’Hern and Olivarez said many smugglers entice drivers by creating the illusion of low-risk. A potential driver is told they will be paid $500 or more per person and all they have to do is pick-up two, three or four people and drive them from one city in Texas to another city in Texas; they never have to cross the border.
“There is a clear lack of appreciation for the consequences, a clear lack of appreciation of understanding exactly what you’re doing,” said A’Hern.
Some individuals facing state smuggling charges seemed confused by the law, while other said they are victims of overzealous policing along the border.
“I didn’t do anything wrong and I’ve lost so much over this,” said Matthew Phillips.
Phillips was arrested in 2022 in Kinney County and charged with smuggling.
“I didn’t cross any borders, nobody was smuggled, nobody was hidden, nobody evaded, I mean there was no law broken,” said Phillips.
Phillips is a traveling merchandiser from Houston and said all he did was pick-up hitchhikers while going from Eagle Pass to San Antonio.
“I saw some people and thought, ‘they’re probably in trouble,’ middle of nowhere, it’s dark. So I pulled over and they said they’re going to San Antonio and I thought it would be great because that’s where I was going and they would keep me awake,” said Phillips.
Phillips is fighting the charges and said the legal battle has taken its toll on him financially and personally.
“There’s a stigma that goes with being a human smuggler that I don’t deserve,” said Phillips. “My own daughter has told me she wouldn’t talk to me anymore. It’s a big deal, it’s decimated me.”
Phillips is due back in court this summer.
Since Texas began Operation Lone Star, state troopers logged more than 40,000 arrests, totaling more than 37,000 felony charges.