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Riders leaving a subway station in Brooklyn, N.Y., pass by a pop-up art installation on June 12, 2019. The project featured mannequins as part of the #NOKIDSINCAGES campaign to support Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. (AP)
These photos show an art installation, not real children in cages
If Your Time is short
- These photos show an art installation protesting child separation policies in the United States.
Images being shared on social media show metal cages with what look like people curled up inside under space blankets.
"If you justify these photos you are not human," a description of the photos says. "This is literally inhumane."
One user who posted the pictures on Facebook wrote, "DO all lives matter? Asking for kids in a cage."
This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
Featured Fact-check
That’s because those aren’t people in the cages — they’re child-sized mannequins, part of a public art installation protesting family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The #NoKidsInCages campaign by Raices, a Texas nonprofit aimed at helping refugees and immigrants, arrived in Des Moines, Iowa, in February as people arrived to caucus for their Democratic presidential candidate.
Each of the cages included a red sign that said "#DontLookAway," visible although not legible in the photos on Facebook. CNN reported at the time that the mannequins played recordings of children who have been detained.
We rate this Facebook post False.
Our Sources
Facebook post, June 25, 2020
CNN, ‘Kids in cages’ popped up across Des Moines. Activists say they were making a point about what candidates aren’t saying, Feb. 4, 2020
Raices, #DontLookAway/#NoKidsInCages, visited Sept. 22, 2020
Instagram post, Feb. 3, 2020
PolitiFact, Fact-checking Biden on use of cages for migrants during Obama administration, Sept. 13, 2019
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These photos show an art installation, not real children in cages
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