returs news: SUNLAND PARK, N.M., April 11 (Reuters) – Seventeen-year-old Santi sits in his car outside shops in Sunland Park, New Mexico, watching a pulsing blue dot on his mobile telephone.

Human smugglers have hired him to pick up migrants here, less than a mile from the Mexican border, and take them to nearby El Paso, Texas.

His shiny red mobile phone pings every 15 seconds. He and the migrants share locations, as a contact on the U.S. side messages instructions.

The high schooler with a high-fade haircut is among a growing number of U.S. teenagers in communities from Texas to California recruited to transport migrants crossing the Southwest border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Around one in four drivers caught smuggling migrants last year in the Sunland Park-Santa Teresa area were children, most U.S. citizens living locally, according to U.S. Border Patrol, which began recording the juvenile driver data in fiscal year 2021.

Mexican youth have long guided migrants into the United States. Recruiters tell both Mexican and U.S. teens they are unlikely to face legal consequences because they are minors, according to around two dozen government and law enforcement officials, attorneys, migrant advocates and local residents Reuters spoke to.

U.S. children as young as 14 learn of the work from social media and friends and transport mainly Mexican adults.

The young drivers can earn hundreds of dollars per migrant, and locals jokingly call them “Ubers.” Some see it as a way to get ahead in Sunland Park, a working-class town with three times the national poverty rate where a third of residents are under 18 and many children live with grandparents.

But the job can be dangerous and federal authorities in New Mexico appear keen to crack down on the juvenile drivers.

Teen drivers tend to flee at high speed when officers try to stop them, according to Border Patrol officials. That can lead to pursuits by Border Patrol and crashes.

GOOD DAY FOR PICKUPS

Santi is parked about 900 feet west of a white and green U.S. Border Patrol pickup. The migrants are hiding in the desert around 1,0000 feet south.

Smuggling groups in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, toaok advantage of a cloudy night to push migrants across rocky Mount Cristo Rey where there is no border barrier.

U.S. agents in helicopters struggle to see migrants through clouds, and strong winds may be stopping their drones from flying, according to Santi.