SAN DIEGO — A new art installation on display in Downtown San Diego takes aim at one of the Trump administration's most controversial policies: family separation. It features a cage in the middle of San Diego’s Gaslamp District.
Paola Luisi of the organization Families Belong Together brought the traveling art exhibit from Washington D.C. where it was showcased in May. While in San Diego, it’s gotten many looks and puzzling stares as the group is calling for an end to family separation at the border.
"Imagine the acute trauma of that moment... what it must be like to have your child ripped away from you. This is what it looks like,” Luisi said.
The display is turning a crisis at the border into art showing a life-size child statue stranded in a metal cage.
"In reality, there have been over 1,000 families that we have identified that have been separated since the end of the zero-tolerance policy,” Luisi said.
Puzzled passersby paused after spotting the gripping depiction. The gray statue of a young boy fenced-in is looking out to his mother with her arms stretched out.
Family separation art installation in San Diego
"Then the mom reaching and can't get to him, it's very sad. I don't know why we have to do things like that,” said Susan Walker who was attending the Padres game from San Jose.
This border-themed art comes days after President Donald Trump's visit to San Diego and the Otay Mesa border wall.
"This is just an example and a reminder - it serves as a reminder of the children who are being affected by this policy,” said Luisi.
Also part of the downtown display, tiny shoes of children were scattered across a Gaslamp walkway.
“Think about that, these children are missing, we have taken them from their parents," Luisi said.
Rows of white flowers were used as a base.
“White is traditionally a color that is associated with a lot of peaceful movements,” Luisi said.
The artistic expression made an impact on San Diego grandmother Carmen Munoz.
"I'm glad that this artist has put this out because it is so wrong to separate a child from their parent," Munoz said.
"The fact that we are having a conversation about it being OK to rip parents away from their children is just not who we should be as a nation,” Luisi said.
The exhibit debuted in San Diego on International Peace Day. Families Belong Together hopes to take the display to a number of other cities across the country.
