DOJ Stays Quiet on Potential Investigation of Facebook's 'Facilitation' of Illegal Immigration

The DOJ will not say if it is investigating Facebook’s “facilitation” of illegal immigration after the social media giant admitted it allows people to share information on how to illegally immigrate or be smuggled into the Unites States.

The DOJ declined to comment in response to a request for a federal probe into Facebook over its policies involving the potential use of the platform by human smugglers and sex traffickers, according to a report by Fox News.

The department cited a policy to neither confirm nor deny the existence of investigations.

Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill April 11, 2018 in Washington, DC. This is the second day of testimony before Congress by Zuckerberg, 33, after it was reported that 87 million Facebook users had their personal information harvested by Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm linked to the Trump campaign.

Last month, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich called on the DOJ to investigate Facebook over the matter.

In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Brnovich asked for an investigation into Facebook’s “facilitation of human smuggling at Arizona’s southern border,” and to “stop its active encouragement and facilitation of illegal entry.”

The DOJ’s response to the attorney general, however, did not provide information on whether or not the department is investigating Facebook, or if it plans to do so in the future.

“With respect to your specific concerns about Facebook, the Department takes allegations of criminal wrongdoing seriously,” the letter reads, according to Fox News.

“Although we appreciate having the benefit of your views, as you may know, longstanding policy and practice of the Department prevents us from discussing allegations further or confirming the existence or commencement of any investigation,” Theo Stamos, intergovernmental affairs liaison at the DOJ, wrote.

Stamos then reportedly outlined examples of how the department is “committed to the rule of law,” and how the agency uses tools to fight human smuggling and trafficking.

“For example, earlier this year, the Attorney General announced the establishment of Joint Task Force Alpha, a law enforcement task force marshaling the investigative and prosecutorial resources of the Department to enhance U.S. enforcement efforts against the most prolific and dangerous human smuggling and trafficking organizations,” Stamos wrote.

The letter also mentioned the DOJ’s partnership with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to launch the U.S.-Mexico Bilateral Human Trafficking Enforcement Initiative in 2009 to combat threats and dismantle trafficking networks.

A spokesperson for Meta Company (Facebook’s new name) told Fox News on Saturday, “We prohibit content that offers or assists with human smuggling, invest in technology and people to proactively identify it, and remove it from our platform whenever we find it.”

In Facebook’s letter to Brnovich — which prompted the Arizona AG’s call on the DOJ to launch an investigation — the company said that while it does try to remove drug trafficking content and posts “promoting human smuggling services,” people are still free to post information about crossing international borders illegally.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases