“I couldn’t sleep because the room was small and cold,” a girl who had been detained with her family at the border said. “On the ground there was nothing for us to lay down on, and it felt frozen. I didn’t like it. I had never been caged like that.” But every day, people who cross the border are initially caged in crowded Customs and Border Protection holding cells dubbed hieleras, or ice boxes, for the freezing cold temperatures inside.
There are no blankets or mattresses, just Mylar sheets and mats on the concrete floors. There’s no access to basic necessities like toothbrushes. Adults and kids alike get detained in them, sometimes for days at a time. The fact is that if more Americans knew about hieleras, they’d oppose them—and that’s a major impetus behind the new #AbolishICEBox campaign by immigrant rights advocacy group RAICES and a pair of artists at this year’s South by Southwest Convention.
Using an 8-by-20-foot storage pod, artists Yocelyn Riojas and Jerry Silguero have duplicated one of these cells. Inside, temperatures have been set to chill. Visitors receive headphones to hear audio from the detained girl as they see sculptures resembling children placed throughout the pod. One is sitting on a bench, while another is on the floor. They’re transparent, and for a reason. “These sculptures are transparent to represent the loss of identity of this very oppressed community,” Silguero said.
“Outside,” RAICES said in a release, “there will be a community-painted mural reading ‘Asylum is a human right’ surrounded by a chain-link fence symbolizing the barriers our immigration system imposes on that internationally-recognized right. Bandanas will be tied up on the fence with messages written by any and all who want to comment on our country’s approach to immigration. The fence is being placed in front of the mural as a metaphor to represent the border wall by keeping the audience away from the American dream.”
Immigrant and human rights advocates have been condemning the use of hieleras for years, and these calls have only intensified following the tragic deaths of two migrant children in CBP custody last December. One of the two children, 8-year-old Felipe Alonzo-Gomez, was shuffled between three cells over six days before dying. He shouldn’t have been in there even one day, nor should any other kids. “There’s no amount of detention that has been found to be good for children,” pediatrician Alan Shapiro told the Daily Beast.
The artists and RAICES hope the art installation adds to the pressure already on the government. “Our ‘Asylum is a human right’ exhibit depicts the brutal way our government treats those crossing that border, undercutting the notion that America is a land of opportunity,” Silguero continued. “We’re here to encourage those who have never heard of a hielera to question and challenge the policies that force children to sleep in freezing cold cages for no apparent reason.” For those in the Austin area who wish to visit, click here for details.