The latest escalation of the verbal war between Texas Governor Abbott and New York City Mayor Eric Adams is… something. Adams and The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) Commissioner Manuel Castro have lost their ever-lovin’ minds over Texas actually keeping track of the whereabouts of illegal migrants as they ride buses to NYC. The migrants leave the buses with a plastic bar code bracelet on their wrists.

As the migrants leave the bus, a security worker cuts the bracelets off the migrants. The bracelets are used as confirmation of who rode that bus to NYC. To hear Castro tell the tale, Abbott is making migrants wear bar code bracelets to intimidate and frighten them, not to keep track of them for their own safety. There have been reports that some migrants have left buses during refueling stops and scattered into communities along the way, long before they reach NYC. This bar code bracelet system is a good way to keep track of them and proof that they reached their destination.

There’s a glimpse into how the local media is covering the arrival of the illegal migrants. The anchors and reporters are careful to use the language of the politically correct progressives – the migrants are not illegal migrants but asylum-seekers. They give both Castro and Adams the air time to spew forth with the character assassination of Governor Abbott and Texas officials. It’s ridiculous and predictable. Castro’s overwrought assessment of the bar code bracelets today was a new level of hysteria. He conveniently didn’t mention that before the migrants clear the bus steps, the bracelets are off of their arms. Castro acts like they’ve been branded.

Castro is a piece of work. He seems to show up daily after new buses arrive in the city and demonizes Governor Abbott for sending the migrants to a sanctuary city. Maybe Castro’s office isn’t up to handling the small amount of illegal migrants getting off those buses but that isn’t Abbott’s problem. Mayor Adams is the one on television virtue-signaling that NYC is a sanctuary city that will turn no one away. So, do it. Adams and Abbott trade verbal barbs with each trying to top the other.

The claims stem from video captured by city immigration workers at the Port Authority bus station Wednesday, that seemingly show migrants arriving in the early morning wearing wristbands that appear to be designed to keep track of them.

Upon arriving at the station at roughly 6:15 am, a total of 237 of the newcomers – including small children – were seen donning the wristbands, which each bore bar codes and were cut off by the immigration officials when they arrived.

Officials welcoming these refugees – whom many allege are being forced against their will to travel north by fed-up Texas lawmen – say the wristbands are a shrewd tactic the to scare them into remaining on these buses until they arrive in New York.

Abbot’s office, however, denies these claims, saying the barcode tags are ‘standard protocol,’ and help ensure that the state is only transporting migrants who have been processed and released by the federal government.

Adams accuses Abbott of “flooding” NYC with migrants. So far, only 1500 have arrived in Manhattan. Adams really should accept Abbott’s offer of a tour of the border and Biden’s border crisis in Texas because then he would really see flooding of migrants arriving across the border. The Texas city of Eagle Pass is experiencing the arrival of about 3,000 illegal migrants on average each and every day now. That’s one spot on the border. Adams should be ashamed of himself but Democrats are shameless by nature.

Speaking to CBS affiliate WCBS Wednesday, the outlet who first reported of the barcoded bracelets, Castro expressed his disapproval of the practice, which he slammed as a crass intimidation tactic – and inhumane.

‘It appears to us that asylum seekers are being asked to wear these bracelets with these bar codes to intimidate them, to scare them into remaining on these buses until they arrive in New York City,’ Castro told the station.

‘Gov. Abbott is bar-coding people and treating them as less than human, as if they were cattle.’

Castro said the bracelets were put on the foreigners in Texas and then cut off as they disembarked the bus, by security workers he said were hired by Abbott.

He added that he was fuming after watching the migrants leave the bus sporting the arm-wear, which were even put on young children, photos show.

‘I was incredibly shocked when I saw children with bracelets and bar codes and security personnel treating them as less than human beings,’ Castro said, adding that the maneuver by Abbot – a fierce opponent of immigration – is a clear example of intimidation.

‘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 said.

Abbott responded because this is how this all plays out in the media.

Abbott on Wednesday hit back at the Big Apple’s new mayor – who has grappled with crime in his city since assuming office in January – calling the former police captain a hypocrite for asking Texas cease sending busses.

‘Adams talked the talk about being a sanctuary city, welcoming illegal immigrants into the Big Apple with warm hospitality,’ Abbott wrote. ‘Talk is cheap.’

He went on to declare: ‘When pressed into fulfilling such ill-considered policies, he wants to condemn anyone who is pressing him to walk the walk.’

Later that day, Adams responded with his own quip through a spokesman, in which he labeled Abbott un-American.

‘Someone get this man a dictionary,’ Adam’s scathing statement began. ‘Hypocrisy is claiming you love America and then decrying the words on the Statue of Liberty.

He added that despite Abbott’s assertions, ‘New York City will continue to welcome asylum seekers with open arms.’

‘These individuals and families have been through hell, and they deserve more than being used as political pawns by a governor who cares about nothing more than re-election,’ Adams added.

Meanwhile, migrants arriving in New York City from the border will be housed temporarily on taxpayers dime at the $700-a-night luxury The Row in the tourist hotspot of Times Square in coming weeks.

Adams is putting the migrants up in a hotel that charges $700 per night. The floors of the hotel are ring-fenced and the migrants are told to use a separate entrance than tourists. Who is dehumanizing who, Mr. Mayor? Here’s your mirror.