(Photo courtesy of RAICES Texas/Badger & Winters)
Between February 2018 and March 2019, more than 3,100 children were ripped away from their parents by US Customs and Border Protection and placed in squalid conditions. After a sixth migrant child died in US custody in May 2019, the #NoKidsInCages guerrilla art campaign launched to highlight the Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant families at the border and other ports of entry.
Twenty-four cages were placed near locations with heavy foot traffic in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Each cage contained a child mannequin wrapped in a foil blanket and was accompanied by an audio recording taken at a detention center that documents crying children and Border Patrol agents mocking those children.
The ad agency Badger & Winters conceived the idea in support of the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), a nonprofit that provides low-cost legal services to immigrants, migrants, and refugees and that has taken the lead in providing services to asylum seekers who have been taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
By the end of August, more than 800,000 individuals had been detained by US Border Patrol along the southwest border, including more than 70,000 unaccompanied children.
This article appeared in the Winter 2020 issue of the magazine with the headline: "No Kids in Cages"
Read more stories by Marcie Bianco.