Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich just called on the Department of Justice Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Facebook for allegedly facilitating illegal immigration into the United States. He said the platform allowed people to post instructions on its platform about how to enter the countries illegally or request information about how to be smuggled.
AG Brnovich adds that it is the federal government’s duty to enforce any immigration and criminal laws, adding that the DOJ must investigate and prosecute these matters. He called on their offices to investigate Facebook’s “facilitation” of human smuggling at the southern border. He demands that the social media platform stop its active encouragement and facilitation of illegal entry.
Brnovich tweeted that Facebook’s engagement in the illegal entry of immigrants is just “another example” of how out of touch Big Tech is with America. He said the Cartels are “seizing control” of the southern border, adding that he shames anyone who is exploiting this crisis to enrich themselves.
The letter to Garland states how Facebook was misusing its platform, adding that the Big Tech company even gave Brnovich an in-depth response on how they allow information about illegally entering a country. While Facebook puts a strict ban on drug trafficking content, people are free to post about human smuggling services and even cross International borders illegally.
William Castleberry, Facebook’s vice president for state public policy, defended the company’s decision and said that it allows the content because it does not interfere with people’s right to seek asylum. He said the company consulted with human rights experts to develop this policy to ensure that they do not interfere with people’s ability to seek asylum while prohibiting content related to the business of human smuggling.
Yet critics have argued that Facebook continues advertising its services to assist migrants to make the dangerous journey and unlawfully entering the U.S.
“Facebook’s policy of allowing posts promoting human smuggling and illegal entry into the United States to regularly reach its billions of users seriously undermines the rule of law. The company is a direct facilitator and thus exacerbates, the catastrophe occurring at Arizona’s southern border,” Brnovich wrote.
He went on to say that Facebook didn’t even bother to address the “heinous issue” of sex trafficking, adding that they are a separate crime alongside illegal entry and take a devastating toll on the victims and our communities.
According to the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), Facebook’s algorithms are even recommending smuggler pages to users and feeding false hope to Central American migrants that they will have an easy time crossing the border. While the U.S is facing its biggest migrant surge in 20 years, it’s clear that many of the migrants have arrived due to the misinformation they have been fed by Big Tech companies and the Biden administration.
TTP found that dozens of Facebook pages offering passage to the U.S simply by searching basic Spanish phrases such as “viajar a estados Unidos” (“travel to the United States”) and “cruzando a estados Unidos” (“cross to the United States”). TTP adds that the pages don’t even bother to disguise their intentions, with one page called “Cruze frontera a EUA” (“Cross border to USA”) and a single word descriptor in the profile: “coyotes.” Coyotes is another term for human smugglers.
Some of the Facebook profiles even recommend additional pages that offer border crossings and dangerous smuggling services. All of these are under categories such as “Travel Company” and “Product/Service” to classify the pages and post about upcoming opportunities to “buy passage” to the U.S.
Others pointed out that Brnovich’s investigation is just a distraction from him doing nothing about the election fraud in Maricopa County and the ongoing audits in his state. Either way, the Department of Justice should sue Facebook and other social media companies involved for all costs incurred with illegal border crossers and those who have disrupted border town communities. It’s time to break up Big Tech’s lawsuit protections and make them pay every penny for the chaos caused.