Children were still being held in chain-link cages at the US-Mexico border, separated from their parents, denied their medications, and locked up in freezing temperatures. At the time of the #NoKidsInCages launch, six children had already died while in U.S. custody. The audio features heart-breaking sounds of actual children crying captured from secret recordings smuggled out of these detention centers.

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Though the policy to end the separation of families who cross into the US from the Mexican border officially ended in 2018, President Trump's administration continued the practice well into 2019. Prior to our activation, news reports on border separations were almost nonexistent. So, on June 19, RAICES, the nonprofit organization at the frontlines of fighting for separated families at the border launched a guerilla activism project across New York City to call attention to the treatment of children at our border, and to urge people to pressure their representatives to pass the Keep Families Together Act (H.R. 541). The objective of #NoKidsInCages was to stop people from becoming inured to the horror and inhumanity of the border crisis and rouse them to take action.

New Yorkers are notoriously known for their ability to tune out the daily chaotic sounds of the city. So, a striking sound element was a critical component in our campaign to help develop an emotional connection between our intended audience and our execution. Tapping into our shared human experiences, we believed incorporation of crying children would not only draw our targets in, but also make our execution more relatable and therefore unavoidable. Whether the audience was curious, dejected, or downright appalled, the power of sound was key to the effectiveness of our campaign. To guarantee our audio's authenticity, we took great measures to secure it and smuggled it right out from from one of these detention centers.