What was behind hunger strike at detention facility in CA? ICE, advocacy group disagree

Maddie Capron
·2 min read

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said detainees at a California detention facility may have been coerced into refusing meals.

Detainees restarted a hunger strike in response to “lax coronavirus measures being practiced” at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center, The Bakersfield Californian reported. A previous hunger strike was conducted in April.

Detainees said ICE officials haven’t done enough to stop the spread of the coronavirus within the Bakersfield detention center, the news outlet reported.

ICE said this week there are currently no detainees refusing meals, according to KGET. There were 21 detainees that previously made hunger strike claims to staff, the news outlet reported.

“One detainee missed 11 meals, the other 20 missed between 9-10 meals each,” KGET reported.

ICE spokesman Jonathan Moor said Friday that people could have been coerced into refusing meals, Fox 5 reported.“ICE has learned of potential internal and external coercion to urge detainees to refuse meals at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center,” a statement provided to the news outlet said in part.

The agency said an anonymous source allegedly told ICE staff “that an attorney instructed a detainee to initiate a hunger strike,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

ICE also said a detainee allegedly threatened to hurt other detainees if they did not participate in the hunger strike, Fox 5 reported.

Centro Legal de la Raza said in a statement that ICE’s characterization of the hunger strike was “a false statement,” according to the LA Times.

“This was something that was organized by immigrants at the detention center and was led in large part by black immigrants,” Lisa Knox, managing attorney at Centro Legal de la Raza, told the Los Angeles Times. “I think the fact that ICE is framing them as people who are engaging in violence and invoking these ‘outside agitators’ tropes is frankly racist.”

As of Friday, ICE reported that 83 detainees refused lunch, according to The Californian.

ICE considers nine consecutively missed meals to be the benchmark for when a detainee needs medical attention, Fox 5 reported.

“They view it as an act of resistance to refuse meals from their captors and instead choose to pay exorbitant prices to engage in this form of protest,” Priya Patel, an attorney with Centro Legal de la Raza, told The Calfornian. “They are dipping into their own pockets to buy basically snacks and live off of incredibly expensive snacks that have zero nutritional value really for (them) whatsoever.”