Showing images of children in cages with the words “Don’t look away,” the billboards are expected to be on display on Monday and on Tuesday at three locations across Massachusetts, California and Texas.
“We want voters to remember that these things are still happening and…no one is talking about it,” Associate Vice President of Advocacy at RAICES Ana Maria Rea-Ventre told Newsweek. “This administration is really targeting immigrants and it’s a really big issue and a huge violation to human rights.”
“We want to remind voters that it’s our job to keep our elected officials accountable for these things, so we want them to not look away and to remember that this is still happening and this is an issue on which we need everybody’s help.”
The billboards were erected in Stoughton, Massachusetts, Compton, California and Houston, Texas.
The effort comes following a similar demonstration from RAICES that saw activists install dozens of chain-link cages appearing to hold migrant children across the city ahead of the Iowa caucuses.
Erika Andiola, the chief advocacy officer for RAICES, told Newsweek at the time that while the children were “fake,” the organization knew that seeing children locked in cages, covered only by a Mylar blanket, would be a “disturbing” experience for caucus-goers.
However, she said, it was important that they “don’t look away.”
“Yes, it’s uncomfortable,” she said. “But, at the end of the day, this is the reality of what the country is doing to a lot of children and a lot of people of all ages at the border and in immigration detention centers across the country.”
Calling the Trump administration’s handling of the influx of asylum seekers and migrants arriving at the U.S. border “one of the biggest crises in America,” Andiola said President Donald Trump’s “biggest priority has been to attack the immigrant community and to use every and any tactic that he has to dehumanize and treat us in a way that will allow his…agenda to move forward.”
Immigration advocates have repeatedly called for Democratic presidential candidates to participate in a debate focused solely around immigration.
After the issue was “once again, not debated,” following the Democratic primary debate in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday, RAICES said it was important for Democratic hopefuls to make their stances on the subject clear and lay out how they plan to address the sweeping changes that have been made to the U.S. immigration system under Trump.
