NYC officials say Texas Gov. Abbott is using wristbands to place bar codes on migrants bused to city

New York City officials claim that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is placing bar codes on migrants who were bused to the city, calling the move an intimidation tactic amid the escalating feud over migrants in the U.S.

CBS affiliate WCBS published a video on Wednesday showing migrants arriving in New York City wearing wristbands with bar codes on them. 

A total of 237 of those migrants on the five bus loads were also subjected to an unseen security system that has not been used in the city, according to WCBS. 

In response to the video, some city officials expressed their disapproval of the treatment of the migrants. 

“Gov. Abbott is bar-coding people and treating them as less than human, as if they were cattle,” New York City Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs Manuel Castro told the news outlet. “I was incredibly shocked when I saw children with bracelets and bar codes and security personnel treating them as less than human beings.”

Castro also believed that Abbott placed the bar code wristbands on the individuals in an effort to intimidate them. 

“We know that Gov. Abbott has been trying to dehumanize people, trying to foment anti-immigrant hatred, and while New York will continue to welcome asylum seekers, it’s also our moral responsibility to denounce this kind of behavior by Gov. Abbott,” Castro added. 

The new complaints come as Abbott has been sending migrants from the southern border to New York and Washington, D.C., in a protest of the Biden administration’s immigration policies. 

The Biden administration earlier this year rescinded Title 42, a Trump-era policy that prevents migrants seeking asylum from entering the U.S. due to COVID-19 pandemic concerns.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) has asked for federal assistance on this issue, even sparking a war of words with Abbott, calling for him to be voted out of office in November’s midterm elections and accusing the governor of using migrants “as political pawns to manufacture a crisis.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Abbott told The Hill that Adams and his administration should stop its “baseless lies and fearmongering” over the barcode bracelets.

“This process also helps ensure we are only transporting migrants who have been processed and released by the federal government with federal documentation that allows them to move about the country,” an Abbott spokesperson told The Hill.

“Instead of spreading falsehoods and complaining about a few hundred migrants being bused to his sanctuary city, Mayor Adams should call on President Biden to take immediate action to secure the border — something the President continues failing to do.”

Updated: 12:38 p.m.