Powerful messages soared above ICE detention centers over Independence Day

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Written by Jacqui Palumbo, CNN

Over Independence Day Weekend, 80 artists asked Americans to look up at the skies. Throughout July 3 and 4, messages related to immigration were written at 10,000 feet by World War II military planes, sky-typed over 80 sites related to the country’s network of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities, immigration courts, and the southern border. The idea was to bring attention to these facilities, which may not be familiar to many Americans.

The project “In Plain Sight” is led by Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artists Rafa Esparza and Cassils.

“(We have) come together to fight the culture of incarceration and focus (our) attention on abolishing ICE,” said Cassils over a video call.

The artists involved included Hank Willis Thomas and Dread Scott; Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors; artist and TV producer Zackary Drucker; and designer and former Black Panther member Emory Douglas. Each artist chose a message to have temporarily written in the sky above a particular site.

“NO MORE CAMPS” by curator Karen Ishizuka over the Santa Anita Assembly Center, California, captured in the “In Plain Sight ” 4th Wall AR app. Credit: 4th Wall App / Nancy Baker Cahill / Message “NO MORE CAMPS” by Karen Ishizuka

The phrases — such as “No More Camps,” and “Freedom” — brought attention to the network of upwards of 200 detention centers — which are often privately run — that is webbed throughout the US. Cassils estimates that each skytyped message was visible to about 3 million people in big cities, up to 20 miles away.

The phrases ended with the hashtag #xmap, directing viewers to the project’s Instagram page and site, xmap.us. There, they were able to enter their zip code into an interactive map to see how many ICE facilities are near them.

“Some of (the facilities) are in the middle of nowhere, but some of them are in your city center, interwoven into our urban landscape,” said Cassils.

Artist and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors’ message “Care Not Cages” in Los Angeles on July 3. Credit: Chris Mastro

The team behind “In Plain Sight” has partnered with grassroots organizations and nonprofits around the US — including the ACLU of Southern California and Detention Watch Network. “We see the work not as artists being activists, but artists amplifying the work that activists already do so well,” said Cassils.

Also through the website, viewers can learn how to contribute, from joining the #FreeThemAll campaign to donating to the #MeltICE Freedom Fund.

The project comes at a time when tens of thousands of people are kept in ICE detention facilities as the coronavirus pandemic continues to surge in the United States. In May, it was reported that detainees were participating in hunger strikes; more recently, a judge ruled that all children held at ICE family facilities must be released…