An immigrants' rights legal advocacy group has installed cages with figures mimicking children lying in the custody of U.S. immigration officials around Iowa's capital city.

The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, an immigration legal services organization based in Texas, tweeted Monday an image that showed a small chain-link cage on the side of a Des Moines, Iowa, road with two figures designed to look like children under mylar blankets.

The cages were set up for the Iowa caucuses, which take place Monday.

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"Today caucus-goers in Iowa woke up to more than a dozen kids in cages all over the city of Des Moines," tweeted the group. "We came to remind people that this remains a reality & that the issue cannot be pushed under the rug."

Today caucus-goers in Iowa woke up to more than a dozen kids in cages all over the city of Des Moines.



We came to remind people that this remains a reality & that the issue cannot be pushed under the rug.



#DontLookAway this is a humanitarian crisis.#IowaCaucus pic.twitter.com/munyjrXdIS — RAICES (@RAICESTEXAS) February 3, 2020

The Trump administration has faced heavy criticism from immigrants' rights groups over its detention and treatment of children found crossing the border illegally without an immediate parent or family member accompanying them and in particular over the lengthy periods that often pass before children are reunited with deported parents or those applying for asylum.

An investigation by The Associated Press last year found that a record number of migrant children, more than 70,000, had been detained by the Trump administration over the course of 2019.