‘Stark Example of Brutality’: ICE Used Court Orders to Force-Feed at Least 10 Hunger Strikers

A Guardian investigation based on hundreds of pages of court records found that homeland security officials quietly sought to subject at least ten hunger strikers in ICE detention to involuntary medical procedures during 2025 and 2026. Officials definitely carried out the procedures on at least three detained immigrants and probably two more; the remaining five broke their hunger strikes as force-feeding loomed. The procedures included nasogastric force-feeding, intravenous forced hydration, involuntary blood draws and urine collection, and in every case DHS asked a federal court for permission for guards to physically restrain the striker. One Kurdish asylum seeker at the Port Isabel Service Processing Center in Los Fresnos, Texas, was force-fed for nearly eight months; another detainee at the same facility was subjected to the procedures for roughly six months.