The Biden administration has maintained that the situation at the southern border is a "challenge" but not a crisis, but the new methods cartels are using to keep track of a surge in migrants would indicate otherwise.

As reported by the Center for Immigration Studies:

"A mass-migration surge along the U.S. southern border has so overwhelmed Mexican cartel-associated smugglers that they are requiring their customers to wear numbered, colored, and labeled wristbands to denote payment and help them manage their swelling human inventory.

Photos and video of the cartel wristbands, provided to the Center for Immigration Studies by Tripwires and Triggers website owner Jaeson Jones, show that migrants discard the wristbands once they have reached the Texas side of the Rio Grande. The discarded bands are especially prevalent in Starr County in Texas's Rio Grande Valley sector."

When you hear the phrase "manage their swelling human inventory" in relation to smuggling activity, that should raise an eyebrow.

The cartels are printing different symbols on the bands to keep track of who has paid and what smuggling group will be taking them across the border into the U.S.

For example, this red band with a turtle lets the smugglers know the person will be taken across by the Gulf Cartel, and the number on the back is tied to personal information to track migrants down should they fail to pay them back:

"It's the sort you'd get at a water park," said retired Texas DPS captain Jaeson Jones of the wristbands. "Except that these have clear markings to a criminal organization in a foreign country. Their system is stressed and they've got a process under way. That's incredible. That's the big takeaway."

The underlying question, of course, is why there is suddenly a swell in illegal migration since January.

I seem to recall a new president taking office and stopping construction on the border wall while inviting everyone and their friends to come to America with no strings attached.

I mean, there's a reason migrants are cheering "Biden!" as they run at the border.

I want America to have compassion on the desperate families seeking a better life. I also want us to not incentivize a system that encourages deadly border treks where cartel coyotes do things like stuff 28 people in a Ford Expedition. I want a system where we can filter out violent criminals, sex traffickers, and drug runners.

I want a system where we protect the life and dignity of both those coming and those who already live here, but believe the government's focus should be more heavily on the later since the American government exists to protect Americans.

I'll leave you with a video of all the wristbands on the ground in just one location. No crisis at the border indeed!