Smithsonian wants migrant children’s drawings of detention facilities

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is reportedly interested in obtaining drawings from migrant children held in detention centers that depict their experiences in the facilities. 

The museum has inquired about getting the drawings, CNN reports. 

“The museum has a long commitment to telling the complex and complicated history of the United States and to documenting that history as it unfolds,” the museum said in a statement to the network.

The Hill reached out to the Smithsonian for comment.{mosads}

The photos were drawn by children recently detained in U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities and were released by Dr. Sara Goza, the incoming head of American Academy of Pediatrics, in a CBS News interview last week. 

The drawings show children behind bars, which Goza told CBS illustrates the scene she saw while touring facilities. 

She described children having “no expression on their faces,” and said “there was no laughing, there was no joking, no talking.” 

“I describe them almost like dog cages with people in each of them,” she told CBS. “And the silence was just hard to watch, hard to see.”

Her description echoes those of lawmakers who recently toured facilities, and 2020 candidates who peered in above fences. 

Lawmakers who had the opportunity to tour the facilities last week said their phones were confiscated beforehand, and they were not allowed to take or release any images from the facilities. 

Officials have denied accusations of the unsafe conditions reported by those who toured. 

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that allegations reported by news outlets of children forced into overcrowded, unsanitary facilities are “unsubstantiated.”