Verify is an apolitical entity; however sometimes, we are compelled to cover politics. It is our continued mission and hope to curb the spread of fake news through interviewing verified experts, inspecting primary sources and scrutinizing data.
This article addresses fake photos that were brought to the attention of our Verify researchers and in no way serves to diminish the issues surrounding the southwest border.
Children are now at the center of immigration issues.
Partly due to the visceral photos being shared on social media. Some of those photos, however, were taken out of context.
This photo retweeted 20,000 times portrays a child 'caged' at the border after being separated from his family by ICE agents.
The person who tweeted the photo says he does not recall the source of the photo. Our researchers traced it back to a protest in Texas held by the Brown Berets, immigration activists.
Protesters had children stand in a dog kennel, a simulation of what's happening on the border.
Other photos show the toddler walking around and being held by an adult.
Another photo making of the rounds on social media shows kids in orange jumpsuits with the caption, "I don't care how you try to spin it, children are not criminals and don't belong in cages." It first popped up on the Occupy Democrats Facebook page.
Using reverse image search, our researchers traced the photos back to 2014, where it originally appeared in an article and a video by the organization Californians for Safety and Justice as part of their schools not prison campaign for replacing prison and justice system spending with solutions to create safe neighborhoods and save public dollars.
So we can verify both images are not of detained immigrant children.
The group that organized the protest in Texas responded to viral caged toddler pic saying if people focused their aggression on the real issue we wouldn't have to see this type of protest and though the little boy was not harmed, if you think the image was harsh, how about the reality?
