NYC officials say Texas Gov. Abbott is using wristbands to place barcodes on migrants bussed to city
New York City officials claim that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is placing barcodes on migrants who were bussed 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 barcodes 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 NYC 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,” NYC’s 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 barcode 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 an influx of migrants from the southern border to cities on the east coast in a protest of the Biden administration’s immigration policies.
The Biden administration rescinded Title 42 earlier this year, a Trump-era policy that blocks migrants from entering the U.S. due to health concerns implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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 by November’s midterm election and accusing the governor of using migrants “as political pawns to manufacture a crisis.”
Source: TEST FEED1
