Wristbands Abandoned At The Border Show Human Smuggling Continues During Trump Admin Even If Crossings Are Down

Since President Donald Trump took office, Border Patrol officials have reported a drastic drop in border crossings by migrants. But figures have not dropped to zero and human smuggling activities carried out by cartels are seemingly ongoing.

That activity is evident along the Rio Grande, where a trail of an unlikely objects, wristbands, are proof that cartel activities remain active during a time when the government is seeking to curb unlawful migration.

At the U.S. side of the border, colored wristbands lay abandoned on the floor. Some read "entregas" (deliveries), while others say "llegadas," (arrivals), according to a new investigation from Border Report. Some even say "Mexicans" and all indicate in code which cartel is trafficking the person, how much they paid, and how many times they have tried to cross.

"Each wristband represents some type of illegal entry," Agent Christina Smallwood, a spokeswoman for the sector, told the outlet. "Each color symbolizes something— the wording, the symbolism on them, the imagery."

Smallwood added that migrants have told Border Patrol agents that they are told not to remove the wristbands because if they do and fail to make it to the U.S., then they cannot try again. But if they are sent back, wristbands on, then the cartel often gives them a set amount of tries before they charge them again.

Despite the apparent activity, border apprehensions in the Rio Grande Valley sector have actually gone down significantly, averaging 100 to 150 per day compared to 3,000 per day in early 2023, according to Border Patrol Agent Andres Garcia, another sector spokesperson.

"It's been good," he said, "Lately we can actually say activity has been down. That can be attributed to the fact that this sector in particular has been doing a lot of consequences, you know, regarding Title 8." That measure allows agents to arrest or deport anyone who crosses the border unlawfully.

The dramatic decrease in border crossings has been felt across different border cities and states. In South Texas, shelters that held dozens of migrants just before Trump took office are now down to just a few families. A shelter in McAllen said figures fell to about nine by the end of January from 97 on Jan. 20. In San Antonio, a shelter run by Catholic Charities plans to shut its doors entirely because of a lack of new arrivals.

Similarly, it seems that activity in these cities themselves have also gone down. According to ABC 7 Los Angeles, the streets of El Paso today are vastly different than a year or two ago, when hundreds of migrants made the border city their transition point.

"The difference today is that you'll see the streets empty because they are not risking to be arrested at the border," said Carlos Marentes, director of the Border Agriculture Workers Center. "A lot of the migrants that were publicly demanding or requesting assistance to be legally in this country, they just went into the underground... to the shadows again."

Although the decrease in border crossings has been often credited to the Trump administration's agenda and rhetoric, it still remains unclear if these numbers will continue to decrease as the president continues his tenure in the White House. For one, border crossings often dip seasonally into January. At the same time, those numbers also fell during the first months of Trump's first term, before rising in 2018 and 2019, according to The New York Times.