Immigration officials are reportedly force-feeding migrants on a hunger strike

U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

America's immigration court system is facing a backlog of cases that will take years to sort through. Some migrants have been sent to Mexico to await asylum hearings, while others are being detained in the U.S. as their status is processed.

But while embarking on a hunger strike to protest conditions in immigration facilities, some detainees in El Paso, Texas have been force fed by immigration officials, The Associated Press reported Thursday.

Nearly 30 detainees, largely from India and Cuba, have been refusing food and drink for upwards of 30 days, a relative and attorney tells AP. They are protesting "rampant verbal abuse and threats of deportation from guards," as well as "lengthy lock ups while awaiting legal proceedings," AP writes. The recent government shutdown only exacerbated those long waits, pushing asylum hearings scheduled during the shutdown to the end of a very long line.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has "a more narrow definition of hunger strike," AP says. But a spokeswoman confirmed Thursday that 11 detainees at the El Paso Processing Center are refusing food and four more are doing so across Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, and San Francisco. In a Wednesday statement to the El Paso Times, ICE said six strikers are "currently being hydrated and fed non-consensually under court orders" using nasal tubes.

ICE also said it is monitoring the striking detainees' food and water intake "to protect their health and safety," AP writes. But one relative countered that, saying his two nephews have had nosebleeds and been "hospitalized, back and forth." A self-described dissident in detention and an attorney both said hunger strikers are being put in solitary confinement "as punishment." Read more at The Associated Press.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.