The Trump administration has forcibly treated at least one immigrant detainee on hunger strike since returning to office, according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement document obtained by the Guardian. The revelation marks the first confirmed case of forced medical intervention under the current administration and has reignited concerns about practices that human rights groups describe as torture.
An ICE Health Service Corps report published in February disclosed that a patient who began refusing food between October and December was subjected to force feeding, hydration, urinary catheterization, or involuntary blood draws. The document also noted that seven detainees were staging hunger strikes as of February, and forecasted annual medical spending of nearly $169,000 for treating strikers in the coming fiscal year.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, declined to specify what type of forced treatment was administered or whether additional cases have occurred since the document's release.
Eunice Cho, an immigrant rights attorney who documented medical complications from forced feeding in ICE detention, called the revelation shocking. She emphasized that ICE must obtain federal court orders to forcibly treat hunger strikers, a process often lacking meaningful due process protections because detained immigrants frequently have no legal representation.
The forced feeding procedure itself carries serious medical risks. It involves inserting a nasogastric tube through the nose and down the throat, a painful process that can cause gagging and, rarely, organ perforation. When patients resist or are held down by guards, misdirection of the tube can trigger severe infections.
Hunger strikes have erupted across ICE detention facilities throughout the Trump administration's second term. Last summer, more than 300 detainees at Delaney Hall in New Jersey staged a combined hunger and work strike from May through June, attracting sustained protest outside the facility. Advocates said strikers ended their action after facing retaliation.
At the Adelanto detention center in California, attorneys with the Immigrant Defenders Law Center reported that hunger strikers were zip-tied, threatened with tear gas, placed in solitary confinement, or transferred to other facilities. When the center's leadership was confronted about these incidents, officials denied that detainees were refusing food and claimed disciplinary actions were based on facility violations rather than retaliation.
Sarah Houston, a managing attorney at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said the IHSC document constitutes an admission that ICE is aware of conditions dire enough to compel detainees to stop eating. "No one goes on hunger strike unless they are really desperate," she said, pointing to detainee complaints about unsanitary conditions, medical neglect, and what strikers characterize as physical and psychological abuse.
Forced feeding became internationally notorious in the early 2000s when detainees at Guantanamo Bay were forcibly fed following a hunger strike. During Trump's first term, a series of force-feedings at an ICE detention center in El Paso in 2019 drew widespread criticism. In 2022, the Intercept published the first video of an ICE detainee being force-fed, showing private security guards in riot gear holding down an Indian asylum seeker named Ajay Kumar while medical staff inserted a feeding tube. After public outcry, ICE released Kumar and three other hunger strikers from custody.
The IHSC report was produced in response to a 2024 Senate appropriations committee directive requiring ICE to provide regular updates on hunger strikes in detention. The department stated that all detainees are provided three meals daily but did not address whether additional forcible treatments have occurred since February.
Author James Rodriguez: "The government's own paperwork proving it force-feeds detained immigrants while denying it does so reveals a contempt for accountability that goes beyond mere hypocrisy."
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