Very clever art!

MAGA: Make Art Great Again!

A detention center purely for immigrants? Already there. But not because of Trump.

I'm sure many of you heard about the lawsuit against ICE and CoreCivic (formerly CCA) where immigrants were being held at a facility in Denver and were forced to do menial labor for $1/day, ranging for janitorial duties to being chefs. Filed in 2014, the lawsuit blew up this weekend when a judge ruled it could go class action. (Source: WaPo) That detention center was opened in 2006 under W, and operated through Obama's term.

Here's the kicker. In Aug 2016, the same month Obama signed an EO that was going to sever ties between the federal prison system and private corporations, ICE signed a new 4-year, no-bid, $1b contract with CoreCivic to open a new facility exclusively for immigrant families, specifically those from Central America whose countries are in turmoil. (Source: another WaPo)

So, it's not coming. It's already here. And, it's a bipartisan effort.

We already have internment camps for immigrants - forced labor, indefinite "sentences" (in quotation marks because these people have not had a day in court or been convicted of a crime for the most part), family separation being used as a tool of terror (see today's statement by secretary Kelly), all as part of a for-profit prison system. The US has embarked on a full scale ethnic cleansing campaign.

An internment camp surrounded by million-dollar condos, homes and over-priced rentals than run more than the mortgages on the prior, not to mention the neighborhood eateries that open and close as quickly as the weather turns. That really IS hilarious!

Looks like a great way to intimidate immigrants who aren't familiar with the art world's cynical postmodern irony. Must have been made by artists who are motivated more by impressing their bros than actually helping the situation.

@6:

Yeah, I'll bet people said essentially the same thing about Picasso's "Guernica".

@7 - Worth googling for an art history refresher.

Thanks to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, signed by Barack Obama, the US military can indefinitely detain American citizens without charge or due process. That should give Trump the legal tool he needs to fill those detention centers, when the time comes.

Guernica is a cubist mural, not a sign that pretends to be a government notification that people are about to be interred. Bullshit comparison.

While this poster is indeed quite clever, I don't buy our dear writer's surprise that the transit authorities immediately removed it.

At least they took it down before it could be tagged.

I'm all for great art, but feel sick about this once great country and how fast it's downward spiraling.

That which is glaringly obvious to everyone else but seems to have somehow eluded you (as I'm sure many things do these days..) is that this prank is funny because it's so scary real. Acts like this open up dialogue between strangers, is subversive in its intent, thumbs it's nose at an increasingly fascist government, all while managing to stay humerous and peaceful. It's an education in street art for those unexposed and pushes the boundaries of legality. (I'm amazed that the artist stepped forward. Forging a presidential lithograph has got to be a big no-no. But that's resistance and revolution., isn't it?) Personally, I'm glad to see the Merry Pranksters are alive and well. Because we need them now more than ever. And John...in just one word.........A R T.

This is a hate crime that should be reported.

Just one last thing. I have no way of knowing just how many people walked by these signs in their respective cities without seeing it or comprehending it's meaning, but I'd bet my Freedom Fries that it was quite a few. Damned...that's depressing.

I agree with @6 that regardless of the artist's actual intention, this feels as much an intimidation tactic *against* immigrants as much as a statement in irony. It might be an cool edgy statement to a white person, but as a (non-white) immigrant myself and having gone though enough harassment as-is by ICE and CBP agents over the years, seeing this feels like a gut punch and to be in bad taste.

That would be very convincing if this were the 1940's, before America started outsourcing everything. Any internment camps Trump sets up will be privatized facilities, not government owned land.

Therefore, this sign should have the logo for GEO Corp alongside the POTUS seal.

pssst....your artist friend is the one who put the sign up.

It was a politically motivated prank, not art -- like what the Yes Men do. And, regardless of what we agree to call it, it's naive of you to act indignant that they would take it down when they've allowed art up in the past, when it's been their prerogative to put up the "art" they approve. And, as many have pointed out, it's not as clever as it thinks, since such places already pretty much exist in the US. Finally, it's putting too much faith in winky cleverness that turned much of the country off of the Democratic Party.

@21 haha, I need to start keeping a list of all the people (other than Republcian Voters) who are to blame for Donald Trump.

@6 @17

Absolutely true if you assume that immigrants have no brainpower.

@22 ha ha ha, look I'm laughing WITH you (something we should all do more of), because of our simple misunderstanding. (Or maybe it wasn't that, maybe you chose to respond in a mean-spirited way when you were actually capable of correctly parsing what I meant...) I AGREE that the people who pulled the lever, so to speak, for Trump on November 8 are to blame for him. My last point in my original post was that winky cleverness was and is a detriment to winning over more people to the Democratic Party.

When I was at college, I helped a friend with an installation for her finals. I was a bridal fridge, and another friend was a bridegroom washing machine. There was also a shower curtain made of Cheerios. All that was art, too. I am totally on the side of "that sign is art".

Regardless of the signs artistic value, it's not hard to understand why Sound Transit doesn't want a Site of Future Internment Camp sign hanging on the fence it maintains surrounding the construction site or why they commission and approve of pieces to be displayed on the property. Making Sound Transit a villain in this story was off-base.

I'm surprised this isn't a Sydney Brownstone story...

Yeah, I'm with the folks - 6 and 17 above - the piece is funny for about ten seconds, but if I'm an immigrant who's not hep to the cool kid art prankster scene, it would scare the shit out of me. ST was right to take it down - the last thing the Seattle immigrant community needs, in a week where a fucking child was lynched, is tone deaf "jokes" like this.

It's not surprising at all that it was made by a white, male artist in LA, and defended by a white guy, extensively, in Seattle. Get over it.

I think it's great. Just don't put it in places that are already liberal. Everybody will chuckle knowing it was a joke. Put that shit in like Battleground or something.

I guess that is one way to actually get people to use Sound Transit..

I understand the intention of the artist but as someone who already feels personally bombarded by bigotry and actually feels interned within my own country (I'm a natural born US citizen, born to Syrian immigrants so traveling abroad seems precarious to me now) this inspired only fear and additional despair, not hope.

I suppose it is art of a sort. The kind of the agitprop that is adored by American liberals in much the same way that kitsch is non-ironically beloved by conservatives. It's a bad habit.

Overtly political artwork is almost always the sign of a small mind attempting to think great thoughts and running up against its own limitations.

Can we just agree that Seattle is the most complaining city in America? Oh no the Bro's have moved to the Hill what will we do?

"What I’m trying to get across is the thought that with Trump’s recent policies we’re actually possibly not that far away from some kind of detention center purely for immigrants," the artist told The Boston Globe. "A few months before the election it would have been completely unthinkable."

Are you serious? Tacoma's had an ICE Detention center for years. 1500 immigrants are being detained there. https://www.ice.gov/detention-facility/t…
Artists, do your homework before contriving your statement piece about politics.

I think this is important to be posted as art because i think it is important for people to realize how un-far away from this we are. Not sure I'd call it wickedly funny though. It's actually the opposite of funny it's… scary !