‘It represents freedom’: Volunteers tear Texas tags off arriving migrants as tents rise in Randall’s Island

DSC02639-copy-1200×800-1
Volunteer Power Malu rips the Texas tags off of arriving migrants in Port Authority. Monday, Oct. 10, 2022.
Photo by Dean Moses/amNY File

Five buses carrying asylum seekers pulled into Port Authority before 7 a.m. on Oct. 10 as the mayor’s tent city begins to take shape on Randall’s Island.

Fatigued, hungry and frightened, a wave of humanity flooded out of the buses and into the city. Mothers and fathers swaddled small, bleary-eyed children in Red Cross blankets as they both symbolically and figuratively stepped out of the darkness and into the light.