Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Trump Fires IRS Commissioner, Bessent Named Acting Head

1 day ago

University of California Reviews US Government’s $1 Billion UCLA Settlement Offer

1 day ago

Kounalakis Exits California Governor’s Race, Will Run for State Treasurer

1 day ago

National Weather Service to Restore Hundreds of Jobs Cut Under Trump

1 day ago

Wall Street Gains as Trump’s Interim Fed Choice Stokes Dovish Bets

1 day ago

US, Russia Plan Truce Deal That Would Cement Putin’s Gains in Ukraine, Bloomberg Reports

1 day ago

Visalia Roadwork to Close Giddings Street Through December

1 day ago

Trump Asks US Supreme Court to Lift Limits on Immigration Raids

2 days ago
AP Newsbreak: ICE Force-Feeding Detainees on Hunger Strike
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 7 years ago on
January 31, 2019

Share

Federal immigration officials are force-feeding six immigrants through plastic nasal tubes during a hunger strike that’s gone on for a month inside a Texas detention facility, The Associated Press has learned.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says 11 detainees at the El Paso Processing Center have been refusing food, some for more than 30 days. Detainees who reached the AP, along with a relative and an attorney representing hunger strikers, said nearly 30 detainees from India and Cuba have been refusing to eat, and some are now so weak they cannot stand up or talk.
Another four detainees are on hunger strikes in the agency’s Miami, Phoenix, San Diego and San Francisco areas of responsibility, said ICE spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa on Wednesday.
The men say they stopped eating to protest verbal abuse and threats of deportation from guards. They are also upset about lengthy lock ups while awaiting legal proceedings.
In mid-January, two weeks after they stopped eating, a federal judge authorized force-feeding of some El Paso detainees, Zamarripa said. She did not immediately address the detainees’ allegations of abuse but did say the El Paso Processing Center would follow the federal standards for care.

Men With Nasal Tubes Are Having Persistent Nose Bleeds

ICE officials say they closely monitor the food and water intake of detainees identified as being on a hunger strike to protect their health and safety.

“They are not well. Their bodies are really weak, they can’t talk and they have been hospitalized, back and forth. They want to know why they are still in the jail and want to get their rights and wake up the government immigration system.” — Amrit Singh from California
The men with nasal tubes are having persistent nose bleeds, and are vomiting several times a day, said Amrit Singh, whose two nephews from the Indian state of Punjab have been on hunger strike for about a month.
“They are not well. Their bodies are really weak, they can’t talk and they have been hospitalized, back and forth,” said Singh, from California. “They want to know why they are still in the jail and want to get their rights and wake up the government immigration system.”
Singh’s nephews are both seeking asylum. Court records show they pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge in September after illegally walking across the border near El Paso.
There have been high-profile hunger strikes around the country at immigration detention centers in the past, and non-consensual feeding and hydration has been authorized by judges in court orders. Media reports and government statements don’t indicate immigration detainees actually underwent involuntary feeding in recent years, opting to end their hunger strikes when faced with nasal intubation. ICE did not immediately respond to queries about how often they are force-feeding detainees.
To force-feed someone, medical experts typically wind a tube tightly around their finger to make it bend easily, and put lubricant on the tip, before shoving it into a patient’s nose. The patient has to swallow sips of water while the tube is pushed down their throat. It can be very painful.

Rules Vary by District and Type of Court

The El Paso detention facility, located on a busy street near the airport, is highly guarded and surrounded by chain-link fence.
Ruby Kaur, a Michigan-based attorney representing one of the hunger strikers, said her client had been force-fed and put on an IV after more than three weeks without eating or drinking water.

“They go on hunger strike, and they are put into solitary confinement and then the ICE officers kind of psychologically torture them, telling the asylum seekers they will send them back to Punjab.” — Ruby Kaur, a Michigan-based attorney
“They go on hunger strike, and they are put into solitary confinement and then the ICE officers kind of psychologically torture them, telling the asylum seekers they will send them back to Punjab,” Kaur said.
Eiorjys Rodriguez Calderin, who on a call from the facility described himself as a Cuban dissident, said conditions in Cuba forced him and other detainees to seek safety in the U.S., and they risk persecution if they are deported.
“They are restraining people and forcing them to get tubes put in their noses,” said Rodriguez, adding that he had passed his “credible fear” interview and sought to be released on parole. “They put people in solitary, as punishment.”
Those “credible fear” interviews are conducted by immigration authorities as an initial screening for asylum requests.
ICE classifies a detainee as a hunger striker after they refuse nine consecutive meals. Federal courts have not conclusively decided whether a judge must issue an order before ICE force-feeds an immigration detainee, so rules vary by district and type of court, and sometimes orders are filed secretly.

Force-Feeding at Guantanamo Bay Garnered International Blowback

In Tacoma, Washington, where immigration detainees have held high-profile hunger strikes in recent years, courts have ordered force-feeding at least six times, according to court records. In July 2017, a federal judge refused to allow ICE to restrain and force-feed a hunger striking Iraqi detainee who wanted to be housed with fellow Iraqi Chaldean Christians detained Arizona facility.
Since May 2015, volunteers for the nonprofit Freedom for Immigrants have documented 1,396 people on hunger strike in 18 immigration detention facilities.
“By starving themselves, these men are trying to make public the very suffering that ICE is trying keep hidden from taxpayers,” said Christina Fialho, director of the group.
While court orders allowing force-feeding have been issued in cases involving inmates, Fialho couldn’t recall a situation when involuntary feeding actually occurred in immigration detention facilities because the inmates opted to eat.
The force-feeding of detainees through nasal tubes at Guantanamo Bay garnered international blowback. Hunger strikes began shortly after the military prison opened in 2002, with force-feeding starting in early 2006 following mass refusals to eat.

Force-Feeding Raises Ethics Issues for Medical Professionals

After four weeks without eating, the body’s metabolic systems start to break down, and hunger strikers can risk permanent damage, including cognitive impairment, said Dr. Marc Stern, a correctional physician at the University of Washington in Seattle who has previously consulted with the Department of Homeland Security.

“You can become demented and lose coordination, and some of it is reversible, some of it isn’t. The dangers are not just metabolic. If you are very weak, you could very simply get up to do something and fall and crack your skull.” — Dr. Marc Stern, a correctional physician
“You can become demented and lose coordination, and some of it is reversible, some of it isn’t,” Stern said. “The dangers are not just metabolic. If you are very weak, you could very simply get up to do something and fall and crack your skull.”
Force-feeding raises ethics issues for medical professionals who work inside ICE facilities.
The American Medical Association has expressed its concerns about physicians participating in the force-feeding of hunger strikers on multiple occasions, and its own principles of medical ethics state “a patient who has decision-making capacity may accept or refuse any recommended medical intervention.”
The association also endorses the World Medical Association Declaration of Tokyo, which states that when prisoners refuse food and physicians believe they are capable of “rational judgment concerning the consequences of such a voluntary refusal of nourishment, he or she shall not be fed artificially.”

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

How a CIA Hit on Al Qaeda Ensnared a US Citizen in Afghanistan

DON'T MISS

California Escalates Texas Redistricting Fight With November Ballot Measure

DON'T MISS

White House to Hold Press Conference on Crime in DC on Monday, Trump Says

DON'T MISS

Tulare County Recommends Vaccination as Whooping Cough Cases Rise

DON'T MISS

How Long Before the Navy Moves Crashed Jet Out of Buddy Mendes’ Cotton Field?

DON'T MISS

Sierra Unified Unveils Renovated Library in First Phase of Campus Modernization

DON'T MISS

Madera County’s Former Sheriff-Turned-Top Exec Jay Varney Ready to Retire

DON'T MISS

California Antisemitism Bill Sparks Clash Between Jewish Groups and Educators

DON'T MISS

Rivian Opens EV Dealership, Service Center in Fresno. First for Central Valley

DON'T MISS

Trump Fires IRS Commissioner, Bessent Named Acting Head

UP NEXT

National Weather Service to Restore Hundreds of Jobs Cut Under Trump

UP NEXT

Where the Redistricting Wars Might Go After Texas

UP NEXT

Israel Faces Backlash at Home and Abroad Over Gaza War Escalation Plan

UP NEXT

Wall Street Gains as Trump’s Interim Fed Choice Stokes Dovish Bets

UP NEXT

US, Russia Plan Truce Deal That Would Cement Putin’s Gains in Ukraine, Bloomberg Reports

UP NEXT

US Issues New Iran-Related Sanctions, Treasury Says

UP NEXT

Netanyahu Says He Wants Israel to Take Control of All of Gaza

UP NEXT

She Survived a 9-Story Fall After a Russian Missile Hit Her Building

UP NEXT

FBI to Track Down Texas Democrats Who Fled Over Redistrict Vote, US Senator Says

UP NEXT

Trump to Sign Order Requiring Universities Disclose Admissions Data on Race

Tulare County Recommends Vaccination as Whooping Cough Cases Rise

7 hours ago

How Long Before the Navy Moves Crashed Jet Out of Buddy Mendes’ Cotton Field?

7 hours ago

Sierra Unified Unveils Renovated Library in First Phase of Campus Modernization

7 hours ago

Madera County’s Former Sheriff-Turned-Top Exec Jay Varney Ready to Retire

23 hours ago

California Antisemitism Bill Sparks Clash Between Jewish Groups and Educators

1 day ago

Rivian Opens EV Dealership, Service Center in Fresno. First for Central Valley

1 day ago

Trump Fires IRS Commissioner, Bessent Named Acting Head

1 day ago

University of California Reviews US Government’s $1 Billion UCLA Settlement Offer

1 day ago

Trump Officials Will Not Face Contempt Over Venezuela Deportations, Appeals Court Rules

1 day ago

Kounalakis Exits California Governor’s Race, Will Run for State Treasurer

1 day ago

How a CIA Hit on Al Qaeda Ensnared a US Citizen in Afghanistan

As a crowd looked on, uniformed Taliban surrounded the Toyota Landcruiser in which Mahmood Habibi, a naturalized U.S. citizen, sat. Other Ta...

4 hours ago

Ahmad Habibi and his younger brother Mahmood Habibi pose for the camera, Canada, 2014. Mahmood Habibi was taken hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan on August 10, 2022, the U.S. government says. Ahmad Shah Habibi/Handout via REUTERS
4 hours ago

How a CIA Hit on Al Qaeda Ensnared a US Citizen in Afghanistan

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at a press conference, accompanied by members of the Texas Democratic legislators, at the governor’s mansion in Sacramento, California, U.S., August 8, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
4 hours ago

California Escalates Texas Redistricting Fight With November Ballot Measure

President Donald Trump takes questions from reporters at the White House in Washington, July 30, 2025. The conversation between President Trump and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo came at a time when Cuomo was publicly pushing Mayor Eric Adams and other rivals to drop out of the race in hopes of consolidating the support of voters who oppose the frontrunner, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. (Eric Lee/The New York Times)
4 hours ago

White House to Hold Press Conference on Crime in DC on Monday, Trump Says

Tulare County experiencing an increase of whooping cough cases
7 hours ago

Tulare County Recommends Vaccination as Whooping Cough Cases Rise

7 hours ago

How Long Before the Navy Moves Crashed Jet Out of Buddy Mendes’ Cotton Field?

Sierra Unified Library Renovations
7 hours ago

Sierra Unified Unveils Renovated Library in First Phase of Campus Modernization

Jim Varney retiring from madera County
23 hours ago

Madera County’s Former Sheriff-Turned-Top Exec Jay Varney Ready to Retire

1 day ago

California Antisemitism Bill Sparks Clash Between Jewish Groups and Educators

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend