Activists in California altered a billboard on a busy highway to remind citizens what the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s priorities are all about.
“We make kids disappear’ - I.C.E.” the billboard, changed Wednesday night, reads on Emeryville’s Shellmound St., referring to the U.S. law enforcement agency by its acronym. It previously read “We Make Junk Disappear” for an ad for trash removal, CBS San Fransisco reported.
Activist group Indecline created the new piece as a response to the separation of children from their parents along the U.S.-Mexico border. It also refers to the migrant child detention centers springing up across the country.
The group said the billboard is an attempt to publicly condemn President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies. Indecline also cited the president’s “willingness to inflict immense trauma on young children and their families under his banner of xenophobia” in a statement to the Washington Post.
Thousands of children are still detained across the U.S. despite Trump’s executive order signed on Wednesday that has put a halt to the separations. In just one Texas facility, nearly 1,500 children are being kept in cages. At other facilities, journalists and politicians who want to view the conditions inside have been turned away.
“I think it’s a pretty powerful political statement,” Bay Area resident Heran Medhin told CBS San Francisco. “I think ultimately we have to be concerned with children. They didn’t do anything to deserve to be separated from their parents.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misgendered Heran Medhin and indicated she is a spokeswoman for Indecline. She is not, and a statement misattributed to her has been attributed to the group.
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