HARROWING

Police Remove NYC Art Installations Featuring Sobbing Migrant Children in Chain-Link Cages

Several such installations popped up all over the city Wednesday, forcing passersby to listen to real audio from inside detention facilities.

New York City police have torn down several art installations that popped up across the city featuring audio of sobbing migrant children inside detention facilities and kids held in chain-link cages. Police removed one installation in front of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and one video shows an officer using an electric saw to detach a display from a parking payment stand, The Washington Post reports. The 24 installations are concentrated in highly trafficked areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn as well as in front of news organizations. The idea for the displays was reportedly developed by the Badger & Winters ad agency in support of RAICES, a nonprofit offering legal assistance to migrants and refugees.

The installations were set up shortly after the Trump administration announced that the government will house more than 1,000 migrant children on the site of a former Japanese internment camp. Federal officials said last week they would open three emergency shelters to house between 3,000-4,000 unaccompanied migrant children.