Maru Mora Villalpando
(Maru Mora Villalpando)
EL PASO, Texas — At the end of last December, more than 30 people began a hunger strike at the El Paso Processing Center in Texas. Community support groups learned about this action from a group of Cubans on the hunger strike. They warned that nine Punjabi men refusing food at the detention center were being force-fed.
I’ve been supporting people detained for a long time, especially when they are on hunger strike. A hunger strike is their only peaceful tool at hand to bring attention to the inhumane conditions and human rights violations they face every day while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This time, I was able to join the support teams on the ground at El Paso.
Every hunger strike is different. Circumstances can vary depending on location, the agency managing the detention facility, number of people detained and nationalities. But one constant is that people detained always look out for each other. This is the basic principle of community organizing. And that is what a hunger strike in a detention center is — community organizing.
In this case, Cubans called to get support for the Punjabi group facing immense torture by ICE. The World Medical Association has determined that force-feeding is unethical, and the United Nations agrees that “the treatment of asylum-seekers could violate the UN Convention Against Torture.”
What makes this strike different from all the others I’ve been involved in supporting is the boldness of ICE, which obtained court orders in January to “begin non-consenual hydration and feeding.” ICE has threatened or obtained courts orders to force-feed or force-hydrate before. We saw our share of these at Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, Wash. First, in 2014, when the largest hunger strike in a detention facility in the U.S. occurred, ICE threatened the strikers with force-feeding. But due to our organizing on the ground and the U.S. presidential administration at the time , we could stop ICE from obtaining court orders. That has not been the case since the change in administration.
In 2018, when several hunger strikes occurred in NWDC, and we knew three people still on hunger strike, we filed a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop ICE from obtaining a force-feeding order. We lost that battle.The hearing was cancelled, and the judge agreed with ICE. In ICE”s response to our TRO, it acknowledged obtaining six prior orders to force-feed and/or force-hydrate. And now in 2019, ICE acknowledges already force-feeding nine of the Punjabi men still on hunger strike.
ICE used to keep this kind of information hidden from public view.
This escalation of violence against hunger strikers should worry all of us. I believe that a lot of the attacks against the undocumented community — my community — are a testing ground for more things to come to the general population in the U.S.
But a remarkable thing that keeps us strong while witnessing this violence and torture against our communities is also witnessing the bravery and determination of the strikers. On my trip to El Paso, ICE stopped the force-feeding, and paused the threat of deportation.
The strikers continue on hunger strike. They know they are being supported by a large community. Supporters include local groups such as Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee and Advocate Visitors with Immigrants in Detention, affinity groups that came from afar such as Sikh Coalition and South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), Sikh American Legal Defense Fund, and groups like us, NWDC Resistance, Detention Watch Network, a national group we are members of, and many more.
People on hunger strike were told about actions happening right outside the gates and fences that keep them locked up and separated from us on the outside. They know the community cares, and we are doing many things to make sure they are safe, and they are released.
U.S. politics continue using us immigrants as their scapegoats. Even Democrats caved in to Donald Trump holding our country hostage, giving him more money to expand detention after approving over $1 billion in the last budget approval. Now Trump has the chance to declare a national emergency to obtain yet more money, and build a clear pathway to a fascist state where all power is concentrated in the executive branch.
Many believe we just need to go back to “democracy and rule of law,” ignoring that the past built the road to this moment.
While all of this happens, people in detention still dare continue fighting, dreaming of life and dignity, organizing under the most violent and torturous circumstances. They will continue striking so all of us, together, end this nightmare and build a new world.
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