(CNN) The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History has inquired about obtaining disturbing drawings by migrant children that depict figures with sad faces behind bars.
"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," according to a statement from the museum to CNN.
The drawings by three children who had just been released from US Customs and Border Patrol custody drew international attention last week. The children, ages 10 and 11, were staying at a respite center run by the Catholic church in McAllen, Texas, when they made the drawings.
Renee Romano, a professor of history at Oberlin College, applauded the Smithsonian for making an effort to preserve artifacts documenting the crisis at the border as part of US history.
She said the US government's current policy of detaining immigrants and separating children from parents is part of a long national record of "seeing people as less than human."
LiveForPanda on July 9th, 2019 at 03:35 UTC »
Sheltering each of these children costs taxpayers 300 USD a day. How is this even f-ckong possible. Can’t imagine the dirty deals and corruption behind it. Give me 100 per kid a day and I will keep some of those kids in my house.
Sean951 on July 9th, 2019 at 00:10 UTC »
This is how you properly memorialize dark parts of the country's history, not trying to save statues put up decades later specifically to glorify it.
thought_first on July 8th, 2019 at 22:44 UTC »
Right next to a sign that says: "Art produced while a few hundred people made $750 per day off of these artists".