A group of artists used skywriting in 80 different places in the US to protest the immigration policies in the US on the Fourth of July.

The sky writings flew over immigration detention facilities, jails, courts, and the US-Mexico border.

The artists wrote slogans like "Care, not cages" and "Defund ICE", or the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. They hired a fleet of planes to skywrite these slogans.

The Hill reported that the signs will be seen in different places from Friday to Sunday.

The performance artist who arranged the skywriting goes by the name Cassils.

He told NPR that he was shocked to find many detention centers when he moved into the country from Canada.

Cassils flew in one of the planes that flew over the West Coast headquarters of Geo Group and left a message in the sky, "Shame. #Defund Hate".

The location that the artist flew over is one of the biggest operators of adult detention centers for ICE.

Who is this group of artists?

The project was named "In Plain Sight", a reference to how Cassils saw so many detention centers in the US when he first came to the country.

The group heard the detention centers can be found by the southern border of the US, Cassils said.

He noticed that detention centers are "in practically every state", noting one near an IKEA in Brooklyn.

Rafa Esparza, who also worked on the project, said the messages in the sky are those that come from "frustration". He also said these comes from care, support, and solidarity.

Esparza said the messages want to make demands.

Members of the group include lawyer Chase Strangio, artist Patrisse Cullors, and artist Hank Willis Thomas.

They also partnered with other groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Raices and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles was met by the message "Care, not cages" written by Cullors.

Cullors called the Los Angeles County the "largest jailer in the world".

She pointed out that half of the people in the jails are in there because they can't pay for bail. When someone goes inside undocumented, they are not released by given to ICE instead.

The group is challenging the county to invest in the community by other ways than detention, said Cullors.On the other hand, Strangio said his job as a lawyer often held him back by limits of the law. But he believed art and artistic disruption are "essential components of movements for social transformation."

The lawyer used his corner of the sky to honor transgender immigrant activist Lorena Borjas who died of COVID-19 in March.

Other phrases written in the sky were "Unseen Mothers" and "Nosotras Te Vemos (We See You)".

The group planned to sky type the messages in about 20 languages, including Hindi, Kurdish, Lakota and Punjabi.

How did they make it happen?

According to New York Times, the project had a medium-sized production team, led by Cassils' life partner Cristy Michel.

Michel said they found the company Skytypers that does most of the business in the US. The pilots have not done something like "In Plain Sight".

Michel said when she feels the pilots getting nervous he tells them how "art helps the mind expand and think about future possibilities."

Want to read more? Check these out!