This morning a reported 24 guerrilla art installations have appeared in some of the most highly trafficked areas of NYC. Some were placed in front of the headquarters of major news organizations, including CNN, Fox News, and Newsweek.
Other sculptures have been torn down in front of Barclays Center and Columbia University.
These pieces were organized with a collaboration between RAICES, an immigration legal assistance nonprofit operating in Texas, and the advertisement agency Badger & Winters.
#nokidsincages on Bedford Ave in #Brooklyn pic.twitter.com/Ls6r99QEXI
— Megan (@meganthedawdler) June 12, 2019
These sculptures use paper, wigs, tinfoil blankets, and shoes in order to mimic the sleeping forms of children detained by US Border Control as displayed in leaked viral images of said detention centers.
The installations play audio captured by ProPublica last year of sobbing children from said centers.
Not included in the audio used for the pieces is the reaction of a border patrol agent who said to the sobbing children: “Well, we have an orchestra here… What’s missing is a conductor.” As of June 12, six children have died.
On the No Kids In Cage’s homepage, their mission statement reads:
“They’ve spent an average of 154 days away from their parents. They’ve been shuttled around between 17 different states. They sleep under $0.68 blankets in freezing temperatures.”
“This is not history. This is happening now. Hundreds more have been separated. 6 children have died. #NoKidsInCages is about the children. We cannot be a nation that separates families.”
With no statement from the NYPD as of yet, the installations are being torn down faster than they were able to stay up.
No Kids In Cages is advocating for Congress to pass Bill HR-541: the Keep Families Together Act. This bill was created by child welfare professionals in order to stop the traumatic process of separating families.
They can tear them down and take them away but they won't silence us. https://t.co/GQ2zTsXr6T
— RAICES (@RAICESTEXAS) June 12, 2019
For more information about further action, check out the No Kids In Cages website and make sure to click on their “Act Now” tab in order to send a message to your local legislators to stop family separation at the border.
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