It’s doing this:
In places very difficult to weed by hand…
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I have grown a lot of volunteer wheat in my garden over the years. Lots of seed left in the wheat straw. Mine was always very easy to pull though.
Hard to say for sure from the photo, but I think you need to lay it thicker. I think I can see some ground, which means enough light can get through to let seeds geminate. Either that, of those are returning perrennial grasses, which much won’t help with. If possible, I’d suggest you pull up the mulch, and go over it with a nice sharp hoe. Then, put at least 3" down, preferably more. It will settle and be a lot thinner.
It’s not from last season. Never had that before.
I get it all the time
Some batches come like that. You can usually see the wheat seed heads mixed in the bale. It’s annoying but not too hard to remove. Wait until it gets taller and then pull it out or weed wack. They are shallow rooted and will not grow back. In the future, look for good clean straw with no seed heads.
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I’ll have to very carefully do it by hand. Too dense to weed whack without jeopardizing the plants I want.
Once wheat sprouts up 12-18”, it is usually up above the smaller plants. It’s easier to grab bunches at a time or weed wack at that point. First time it happened to me, I was constantly trying to pluck the little grass-like sprouts. I learned to let them grow a bit first.