24 Immigrants Hold Hunger Strike

This past week, around two dozen immigrants have continued participating in a hunger strike that began with upwards of 150 people in Louisiana. They are doing so in protest of being locked up, and are angry because they claimed to have been seeking asylum in the United States, according to The Washington Post.

The 24 currently detained immigrants are the only ones of the 150 that have consistently denied food. A hunger strike has been defined by ICE as someone rejecting food for nine consecutive meals, but their opinions are being respected if they are not causing any interference.

There have been complaints in regard to the medical care and poor conditions in detention, but those who have been detained in Baton Rouge are more concerned about the lack of attention concerning their cases and the fact that they are being denied bond.

Recently, ICE has agreed to a contract with a private prison temporarily for this year to help manage the spike in immigrants coming through the U.S.-Mexico border. According to NBC News, about 500 people can be held there. The people striking claim to have very limited access to the majority of the ICE staff, making it extremely hard to persuade the judge to let them go while their cases make their way through the immigration court process.

This makes it so that they are stuck awaiting the end of their case, and often time leaves them experiencing dismal conditions while being detained for that time period. ICE is not retaliating against such strikes, but is aware of the negative health impacts, and is monitoring those who are denying food, according to The Washington Post. This strike comes shortly after one that had occurred in El Paso, but a major difference in El Paso was that ICE was force feeding some of the detainees.

The large influx is a continuing issue because it is being seen much more frequently, specifically with Central American families or children and their family members that are fleeing poverty or even extreme violence.

President Trump threatened Friday that he would shut down the border if Mexico wouldn’t put an end to illegal immigration, according to NBC News.

This could be a continuing issue that may take some time to resolve, while also introducing a new issue involving how we address the families that are here seeking asylum.