Why Were There Kids In Cages All Over New York City?

People all over Manhattan and Brooklyn woke up to a shocking sight. Twitter and other social media users reported seeing cages with what looked like small children inside. These had been placed in the middle of sidewalks all around New York City, and with them came a sign that read #Nokidsincages.

What New Yorkers were actually looking at was a pop-up art installation by RAICES, a Texas based non-profit organization who give legal aid to migrants, and the advertising agency Badger & Winters. These cages were equipped with audio from real footage of real immigrants who had been detained and actually put in cages. Though the NYPD has already removed all of the installations, the reports and images from online users have already gone viral.

@j_parritaRAICES tweeted: “Guerrilla installations popped up early this morning in NYC as protest to the more than 3000 children separated from their parents at the border. This is not history. This is happening now. #NoKidsInCages is about the children. We cannot be a nation that separates families.”

What the #NoKidsInCages protests against through this shocking and provocative installation is the separation of immigrant families. Given that adults who finds themselves in US territory undocumented can be criminally prosecuted, they are arrested and detained, then shuffled from state to state. Their children are then placed in cages. This has been one of the most controversial anti-immigrant infamous and immoral policies the Trump administration has thus far perpetrated. Families have been separated at the border without even the proper procedure for them to reunite. “ICE”, informs RAICES on Twitter, “currently has over 13,000 children locked up in cages”. Six children have already died under US custody.

@dailykosActivists strategically placed these installations in front of major news outlets and Social Media platforms headquarters. Here’s the full list: Columbia/Barnard; Natural History Museum; CNN; Hunter College; Fox News; NBC; Madison Square Park; Union Square; Buzzfeed; 9th & 2nd/NYU; Newsweek; Google/Chelsea Market; Whitney/Highline; Instagram/Huffpost; Broadway & Houston; Refinery 29; Brooklyn Bridge Entrance; Brooklyn Bridge View (Dumbo); YMCA Park Slope; York St. F (Dumbo); Vice; Barclays/Atlantic Center; Bedford Stop (Williamsburg); McCarren Park.

@olgaokunPresidential candidate Beto O’Rourke tweeted: “Separating kids at the border inflicts irreversible trauma, and we must fight it. I stand with @Raicestexas in stopping child separation, reuniting families, and supporting immigrant families with more legal representation.”

While there was public outrage over the placing of these protest installations, there was mostly support to speak out against Trump’s inhumane measures. Perhaps this can be a reversal of some of the worst policies the United States has launched within its own territory.

Read more:
The Untold Stories Of The Mexican Dream: The Guy Who Dared To Dream In Mexico
“We Didn’t Cross The Border, It Crossed Us”: The Truth About Migrating Nations
This Is Why Radicals Can’t Recognize When They’re Wrong