(NewsNation) — Migrants are sharing their journeys to the U.S. on social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube, and some are becoming popular influencers in the process.
Photos and videos are nothing new, but their digital reach is. Today, migrants traveling to America use social media to share information about their routes and dangers along the way.
Posts on YouTube, Facebook and TikTok are easy to find. One video documenting the trip from a user named Manuel Monterrosa has nearly 3 million views.
Monterrosa made the journey to the U.S. but claims he moved back to Colombia because he was making more money on his YouTube ads chronicling migrants’ treks.
“I didn’t go to the U.S. to stay, I went to the U.S. with a goal of working for a determined period of time,” Monterrosa says in a video. “I didn’t travel to sit, I traveled to work.”
A TikTok post from user Ricardo Herrera showed the trip through the perilous Darien Gap. The dense jungle region connects Central America to South America and is considered one of the most dangerous areas in the world.
The Darien Gap is controlled by cartels and men, women and children are raped and abused there. Influencer portrayals soften the blow by showing “safe crossings” or stopping points along the way.
Josmar Alvarado, a Venezuelan migrant, crossed the Darien just over a year ago. NewsNation first met him on one of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s buses from Del Rio to Washington D.C. He too snapped photos and videos of his journey.
Alvarado said the social media posts are used by a lot of migrants who make the trek to America.
But there’s also a dark side of migrant social media. One popular TikTok page is dedicated to people who have gone missing or have been injured along the way.
Others, like apparent human smugglers, share videos on TikTok about how they’re helping people enter the U.S. through holes cut in the border wall.
More than 200,000 people have crossed into the U.S. through the southern border so far this month and there’s still ten days to go.