\n<\/p>\n
One hunger striker in an immigration detention center was force-fed for almost six months.<\/p>\n
One detained immigrant with mental health problems was about to be force-fed, until his attorney intervened and stopped the process.<\/p>\n
And another hunger striker was almost force-fed, but gave in and broke her hunger strike as coercive procedures loomed.<\/p>\n
These are among 10 separate cases the Guardian found, since Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has attempted to subject detained hunger strikers to involuntary medical procedures, including force-feeding. Of those, ICE subjected at least three \u2013 but probably five \u2013 who were protesting against the conditions of their confinement, to the procedures. Human rights organizations have widely condemned force-feeding as torture.<\/p>\n
Now, as ICE detains more immigrants nationwide, immigrant rights organizations and medical experts worry more people will be subjected to involuntary medical procedures.<\/p>\n
Among the 10 cases, the Guardian can exclusively reveal, are an Afghan man who was force-fed for months in Texas, a Ukrainian man with mental health problems in detention whose looming force-feeding in Florida was stopped by his attorney, and a Saudi Arabian woman who ended up in hospital while on hunger strike in Louisiana and eventually broke her strike in Texas before she was subjected to the procedure.<\/p>\n
The process to engage in force-feeding is quick and secretive. After a detainee has spent a certain amount of time on a hunger strike, which varies, ICE will request emergency court orders from federal judges allowing them to quickly force-feed them. In six of the cases reviewed by the Guardian, detained immigrants did not have any legal representation during the court proceedings. Most records are sealed, giving the public only a glimpse at the process.<\/p>\n
ICE detention center guards will then restrain the hunger striker, while medical staff insert a tube through the nose and down the throat and pump nutritional liquid into their bodies, according to court documents and the Guardian\u2019s reporting \u2013 a painful, traumatizing and potentially harmful procedure.<\/p>\n
The Department of Homeland Security and its ICE agency, and the US attorneys offices for the southern districts of Texas and Florida did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
As part of the Guardian\u2019s reporting, we tracked specific cases in ICE detention centers nationwide. The following three cases give vivid insight into what is going on behind the walls of ICE facilities.<\/p>\n
An Afghan man in ICE detention was force-fed daily for nearly six months, starting in September 2025 and lasting through March 2026, enduring repeated nasogastric tube insertions under restraint.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they are doing qualifies as torture,\u201d said Dr Kate Sugarman, a family practice doctor based in Washington DC.<\/p>\n
Sugarman is not familiar with the man\u2019s specific case, but she has worked with immigrant communities around the US and is familiar with healthcare practices in ICE detention.<\/p>\n
\u201cHunger striking is an act of desperation. They don\u2019t do it because it\u2019s fun. They do it because they\u2019re desperate,\u201d she said. Sugarman is also active in Doctors for Camp Closure, an organization of physicians and healthcare professionals \u201cwho oppose the inhumane detention of migrants and refugees arriving to the United States of America\u201d, according to its website.<\/p>\n
According to court records filed in the southern district of Texas federal court, the Afghan man began his hunger strike at the El Valle detention facility, a privately run ICE facility in south Texas, on 11 September 2025. Four days later, he was transferred to the Port Isabel processing center, another privately run facility in Los Fresnos, south Texas. He told facility staff through a translator he was striking \u201cdue to his discontent with his case\u201d and indicated that if there was no resolution he would continue \u201cuntil he is removed from this country\u201d, according to declarations submitted in court.<\/p>\n
The Guardian is choosing not to name him because he is still detained by ICE and repeated efforts to contact him and his legal team were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
There are limited public records related to the man\u2019s case, so background information on his immigration history is unknown. However, another hunger striker at Port Isabel, who met him while in detention, told the Guardian that the Afghan man spoke limited English. He was seen frequently being taken to the facility\u2019s infirmary from the segregation unit they were both in.<\/p>\n
On 19 September, eight days after the Afghan man began his hunger strike, federal judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr ordered ICE to force-feedhim, without a hearing or any input from the hunger striker. Nearly a month later, Rodriguez found the man to be \u201cindigent\u201d and assigned him legal assistance.<\/p>\n
After nearly three months of the man being force-fed, a doctor working at the Port Isabel facility named Shauna Kincheloe, according to a court document seen by the Guardian, submitted a declaration to the court claiming it was \u201cmedically necessary\u201d to continue force-feeding him. Officials by this point had begun to force-feed him twice a day, she added. And the months of hunger striking had taken a toll, forcing him to use a wheelchair while remaining \u201cfrail in appearance\u201d, the doctor said.<\/p>\n
Kincheloe added in her declaration that although the Afghan man was not compliant with orders, he was \u201cnot combative\u201d when made to comply by the \u201cuse-of-force team\u201d. The \u201cuse-of-force team\u201d is usually made up of detention facility guards, who physically restrain hunger strikers while they are force-fed. The Guardian attempted to reach Kincheloe via phone, email and ICE but did not receive a response. The private prison company that runs guard services at Port Isabel, Akima Global Services, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre they tearing up his esophagus? Are they tearing up his stomach, by shoving in that nasogastric tube? How are they even doing it?\u201d Sugarman asked. \u201cFrom what I understand, it\u2019s very painful, very traumatic. There\u2019s certain cases in the ER [hospital emergency room] where sometimes you have to do it because something very dire is going on, but it\u2019s not something you do for six months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attorneys representing the Afghan man consulted an independent doctor, who testified in court on his behalf. Court records related to the hearings are sealed, shielding many details, but docket entries show Rodriguez extended the force-feeding order several times. Rodriguez\u2019s staff at the southern district of Texas did not respond to a request for comment by the deadline.<\/p>\n
Eventually, records from 3 March of this year show the US government requested the case be dismissed because the case had \u201cbeen resolved\u201d, suggesting the man broke his hunger strike.<\/p>\n
Andriy Shepitsen, a Ukrainian man detained by ICE, has a doctorate in a computer science-related field. But he struggled for years with mental health problems. According to court records, Shepitsen, 46, has severe bipolar disorder, which, according to Katie Blankenship, an immigration attorney who worked on his case, contributed to mental health crises and subsequent arrests.<\/p>\n
After an arrest, the criminal court recognized Shepitsen\u2019s mental health problems and sent him to receive psychiatric care, Blankenship said. But he was arrested by ICE and was taken to the now-closed \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d state-run immigration jail in the Florida Everglades and then another ICE facility, where his attorney says he was denied medical care for his bipolar disorder, leading to suicidal ideations. Shepitsen was transferred to the privately run Krome Service processing center in Miami on 20 February this year and began a hunger strike to protest against his continued detention.<\/p>\n
Blankenship said officials refused to give Shepitsen his bipolar medication, citing his hunger strike, while Shepitsen refused to end his hunger strike until he received medical care \u2013 leading to an impasse.<\/p>\n
In April, 44 days after he began his hunger strike, ICE requested a court order to restrain and force-feed him. Blankenship said that by that point, Shepitsen\u2019s lack of food had led to physical and mental distress. Meanwhile, Blankenship submitted motions in immigration court to try to get him released, which were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was deteriorating very rapidly,\u201d Blankenship added. \u201cAt that point, his wife and I were trying to get him out of the hunger strike, but he was in such a mental state that he just really couldn\u2019t hear that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Manuel E Lopez Diaz, a Florida-based doctor working at the Krome facility, wrote a court declaration requesting permission to force-feed Shepitsen, adding that the man\u2019s bipolar disorder diagnosis was not a factor in the case. Lopez said it was his \u201cinformed medical opinion\u201d that force-feeding \u201cthrough a nasogastric tube\u201d was \u201cmedically necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to records reviewed by the Guardian, Lopez has been involved in five separate forced procedure cases since August 2024. When reached by phone for comment, Lopez refused to answer questions or speak about his participation in requesting court orders to force-feed detained immigrants and hung up.<\/p>\n
On the day ICE requested to force-feed Shepitsen, Blankenship intervened, pointing to Shepitsen\u2019s mental health problems as a factor in the case. The following day, a court filing outlined the next steps: Shepitsen would be taken to a hospital and receive an independent psychological and medical evaluation before ICE took further steps.<\/p>\n
Five days later, the case was dismissed. In a court filing, attorneys wrote that Shepitsen began to eat in the hospital. In total, Shepitsen was on hunger strike for 68 days. The prolonged hunger strike affected his body. Shepitsen is still unable to regularly eat, drinking only coffee with milk, and nutritional shakes, according to his attorney.<\/p>\n
Now, Shepitsen is awaiting his removal by the US authorities to Poland, where he will be reunited with his wife.<\/p>\n
The Afghan man\u2019s and Shepitsen\u2019s cases are outliers, in that they had attorneys representing them during court proceedings related to their force-feeding. In the majority of the cases reviewed by the Guardian from 2024 through 2026, detained immigrants did not have attorneys advocating for them in court.<\/p>\n
One of those cases was for a Saudi woman on hunger strike, who had to face off against US government lawyers alone in federal court. The Guardian is choosing not to name her because she has no legal representation and, according to ICE records, she is still detained. Efforts to contact her in detention were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
In late June 2025, the Saudi woman launched a hunger strike to demand her release while locked up at the Richwood correctional facility, a privately run immigration jail in northern Louisiana. In the weeks that followed, she was sent to the emergency room and diagnosed with malnutrition, a urinary tract infection, a fever and low sugar and potassium levels.<\/p>\n
After nearly a month on strike, she was transferred to the Houston Contract detention center, another privately run facility, in Texas, where other force-feeding cases took place in 2024, according to court records. At Houston, she fainted and was again sent to the emergency room, diagnosed with starvation, dehydration and weakness due to starvation, court records show.<\/p>\n
On 2 July, ICE requested permission from a federal judge to force-feed the Saudi woman. In the documents, Dr Alisha Wren, the clinical director of the Houston detention facility, pointed to the woman\u2019s declining health as a reason to engage in force-feeding.<\/p>\n
The decision to force-feed someone \u201cfeels like such a false binary to me\u201d, Sugarman added, pointing to ICE detention as a civil matter, rather than criminal. \u201cJust let them out.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to records reviewed by the Guardian, Wren has been involved in at least three force-feeding court orders since September 2024, all at the Houston facility. When reached by phone, Wren referred all questions to ICE, which did not provide comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe safety, health, wellbeing and dignity of every individual in our care is a priority,\u201d a spokesperson for CoreCivic, the private prison company that runs guard services at the Houston facility said in a statement. \u201cOur dedicated medical professionals follow established and required guidelines governing the identification, clinical monitoring, documentation, mental health evaluation, and escalation of care for individuals engaged in a hunger strike.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CoreCivic spokesperson added: \u201cWe also remain committed to ensuring that everyone in our care has access to legal representation. We would welcome support from detainee counsel in encouraging any individual to protect their health and well-being while attempting to bring attention to their legal case.\u201d<\/p>\n
The federal judge presiding over the case at the southern district of Texas court, Alfred H Bennett, did not rule on the force-feeding request but instead scheduled a hearing. The Guardian found that since September 2024, Bennett has ordered at least two other individuals to be force-fed by ICE. Bennett\u2019s staff at the southern district of Texas did not respond to a request for comment for this story.<\/p>\n
One day before the hearing on 8 July last year, the US attorney representing ICE submitted a request to dismiss the case. The Saudi woman had broken her hunger strike, the government informed the court.<\/p>\n
It is unclear what the current status of her immigration case is. Over one year after ICE attempted to force-feed her, the Saudi woman remains in detention, now in California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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