Fact check: Viral photos don't show children in cages. They're from an art installation.
The claim: Children are being trafficked and held in cages around the U.S.
A viral Facebook post about human trafficking showing what appear to be children in cages and wrapped in foil blankets was shared at least 24,000 times. Originally posted June 8, it claimed children were being trafficked for sex, cheap labor, organ harvesting and experimental drug testing around the U.S. and often kept in private facilities.
"I don't care who you vote for, what kind of hats your wear or what their parents did. . . This is WRONG. . .These Images should make EVERYONE want to DO something about it... NOT just continue ignoring it," part of the post read.
The photos are from a public art installation
The post has since been flagged as partially false by Facebook. The photos are not real children in cages, but rather from a series of public art installations.
The installation features blanket-wrapped mannequins in cages, and was first deployed in New York in June 2019 and again in Iowa in February. The project, dubbed #NoKidsInCages, was launched by Raices, a Texas nonprofit that works to aid refugees and immigrants. It serves as a protest of family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border.
A report by CNN included part of the image shared in the post, where cages were lined up in what appears to a parking facility. The caption in the CNN story, last updated on Feb. 4, said several of the cages in the installation were removed by Des Moines police.
The Facebook user who made the post did not respond to a message seeking a comment for this story.
The same photos were use in a post labeled 'false information'
The Facebook post used the same image as a June 25 post by another user that was ultimately marked as "false information" by the social media platform, which cited the work of independent fact-checkers.
"DO all lives matters? Asking for kids in a cage," the original post said. It was shared at least 17,000 times on Facebook.
Reports: Children are being separated from families, kept in cages
In 2018, the Associated Press reported that children were being separated from their families and kept in cages created by a series of metal fences at the U.S.-Mexico border. Once such detention facility existed in McAllen, Texas.
Earlier this month, lawyers said that they have been unable to find parents of 545 children who were separated at the U.S. border with Mexico early in the Trump administration.
The children were separated between July 1, 2017, and June 26, 2018, when a federal judge in San Diego ordered that children in government custody be reunited with their parents.
Children from that period are difficult to find because the government had inadequate tracking systems. Volunteers have searched for them and their parents by going door-to-door in Guatemala and Honduras.
More than 2,700 children had been separated from their parents in June 2018 when U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered an end to the practice under a "zero-tolerance" policy to criminally prosecute every adult who entered the country illegally from Mexico.
'Rescued from this evil': 179 arrested, 45 missing children recovered in Ohio's 'Operation Autumn Hope'
Our rating: Partly false
We rate the claim PARTLY FALSE. The post itself does not contain accurate images or verifiable information about why children are being kept in cages. However, it does echo real stories of immigrant children being separated from their families and kept in cages made by metal fencing and given foil blankets like the ones in the post.
Our fact-check sources
Facebook post, labeled "partly false information," made June 8, 2020
Facebook post, labeled "false information," made June 25, 2020
Raices Texas, #DONTLOOKAWAY / #NOKIDSINCAGES, visited Oct. 26
CNN, 'Kids in cages' popped up across Des Moines. Activists say they were making a point about what candidates aren't saying, last updated Feb. 4
Associated Press, Immigrant kids seen held in fenced cages at border facility, June 18, 2018
USA TODAY, Parents can't be found for 545 children separated at US-Mexico border by Trump administration, lawyers say, published Oct. 21
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Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Photos don't show kids in cages. It's an art installation
