Color-coded passage: Why smugglers are tagging U.S.-bound migrants with wristbands Reuters | Mar 09, 2021 09:00 PM EST A shoe is seen surrounded by wristbands discarded by asylum seeking migrants from Central America along the banks of the Rio Grande river (Photo : REUTERS/Adrees Latif) Along the banks of the Rio Grande in the scrubby grassland near Penitas, Texas, hundreds of colored plastic wristbands ripped off by migrants litter the ground, signs of what U.S. border officials say is a growing trend among powerful drug cartels and smugglers to track people paying to cross illegally into the United States. Advertisement Like Us on Facebook