Criminal groups that bring people into US reportedly document payment status on the plastic bands
Along the banks of the Rio Grande in the scrubby grassland near Penitas, south-east Texas, hundreds of colored plastic wristbands ripped off by migrants litter the ground, signs of what US border officials say is a growing trend among powerful drug cartels and smugglers to track people paying to cross unlawfully into the United States.
Related: What is Joe Biden doing to cope with a rise in unaccompanied child migrants?
