Human Impact Project

Adam Abdullah, a 31-year-old Somali auto mechanic and asylum seeker living in St. Paul with a pending asylum application, work permit and Social Security number, was arrested by masked federal agents on Dec. 12, 2025 during 'Operation Metro Surge.' Despite regularly attending ICE check-ins and having no criminal record beyond two parking tickets, he was moved between detention facilities in Minnesota, Kentucky and Louisiana over roughly nine months before being flown, shackled, toward Somalia but instead held at Guantánamo Bay's Camp Six alongside seven other Somali detainees, several also arrested in the Twin Cities. His attorney, Marc Prokosch, said calls with him were limited to five to ten minutes and possibly not confidential. Abdullah began a hunger strike over lack of information, after which he says guards beat him and placed him in a freezing solitary confinement cell; while detained, his mother died, and he says authorities denied him an international call and a request for voluntary departure to attend to her. The ACLU sued the federal government, arguing it lacks legal authority to detain immigrants overseas, and a judge allowed the case to proceed with a hearing set for October 14. Abdullah was deported to Somalia alongside eight other men, and his attorney said ICE also stopped publishing detainee location data.

Roberto Mosquera del Peral, a 59-year-old Cuban immigrant who arrived in the U.S. as a child during the 1980 Mariel boatlift and worked as a plumber while raising four daughters, was detained by ICE at a routine immigration appointment and held at the Krome detention center in Florida. He was later flown from Texas and deported without his consent to Eswatini in southern Africa under the Trump administration's third-country deportation program, since Cuba has refused to accept his return for nearly three decades. He has been held in a maximum-security cell at Matsapha Correctional Complex without being charged with any offense or given access to legal counsel. His lawyer said he staged a 30-day hunger strike, at one point raising serious health concerns, to win small concessions such as wearing his own clothes and having a cellphone to speak with family. Civic groups in Eswatini have filed court cases challenging the legality of detaining him and other deportees without charge.

An unnamed Cuban man detained at the GEO Group-run Montgomery ICE Processing Center near Houston, Texas, was arrested by ICE on July 22 and declared a hunger striker three days later. DHS says he entered the U.S. unlawfully in 1980, was ordered deported in 2004, and has prior convictions; he currently lacks legal representation and many of his court records are sealed. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen authorized force-feeding, first via nasogastric tube and later approving a rare, nonconsensual surgical gastrostomy (PEG) tube procedure, with the order extended into September. DHS later said the man had resumed eating and drinking and was not being force-fed, though it remains unconfirmed whether the surgical procedure was performed. ACLU of Texas attorney Savannah Kumar and civil rights attorney Eunice Cho criticized the tactics as torturous, noting the case is likely the 19th in which ICE has sought court approval for involuntary medical procedures on hunger-striking detainees since January 2025.

More than 140 detainees at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma are on a hunger strike to protest insufficient and unsanitary food, lack of medical care, and poor detention conditions. According to La Resistencia, detainees are being denied adequate meals and medical attention by GEO Group, the private company operating the facility, with meal times delayed for hours and food quality described as unacceptable. The detainees are demanding better food and medical care.

Gabar Choli, a Kurdish filmmaker and activist, has spoken publicly for the first time about being force-fed by ICE medical staff over eight months while on hunger strike at Port Isabel federal detention center in Texas from May 2025 to January 2026. Choli staged the hunger strike to protest detention conditions and push for resolution of his immigration case after his asylum application was denied. A Guardian investigation found that between January 2025 and August 2026, ICE obtained court orders for involuntary medical treatment for 18 hunger strikers. Choli was subsequently deported and is now living in Canada.

The Guardian's investigation reveals at least 10 cases since January 2025 in which ICE subjected detained immigrants to involuntary force-feeding through nasogastric tubes. Three cases are detailed: an Afghan man force-fed daily for nearly six months at Port Isabel in Texas starting September 2025; Andriy Shepitsen, a Ukrainian man with severe bipolar disorder, whose attorney intervened to stop his force-feeding at Krome Service processing center in Miami after 44 days on hunger strike; and a Saudi Arabian woman who went on hunger strike in Louisiana in June 2025 and was transferred to Texas, where ICE sought permission to force-feed her before she broke her strike. Medical experts and human rights organizations have condemned force-feeding as torture. In six of the 10 cases reviewed, detained immigrants lacked legal representation during court proceedings, and most records remain sealed.

A Guardian investigation found that the Trump administration's ICE officials attempted to subject at least 10 hunger strikers in immigrant detention to involuntary medical procedures including force-feeding between 2025 and 2026. At least three detainees were definitely subjected to force-feeding, and two more were probably forced to undergo the procedures, while five others ended their hunger strikes before the procedures began. DHS obtained court orders authorizing detention center guards to physically restrain hunger strikers while medical staff inserted feeding tubes and performed other involuntary procedures considered torture by human rights groups.

Hunger strikers at the Adelanto detention center in California faced retaliation from ICE officials after staging protests, according to attorneys with the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef). Detainees were zip-tied, threatened with teargas, placed in solitary confinement, and transferred to other ICE facilities. ICE officials denied that detainees were forgoing food and denied that retaliation was occurring, instead claiming that one detainee who led the hunger strike faced disciplinary actions for vague facility violations.

An unnamed detained immigrant who began a hunger strike between October and December 2025 was subjected to forcible medical treatment in ICE custody, including force feeding, forced hydration, forced urinary catheterization, and involuntary blood draws, according to an ICE Health Service Corps document reviewed by the Guardian. The document confirms the Trump administration's use of forced medical treatment on hunger strikers since Trump began his second term. Healthcare associations and international human rights groups have described such practices as torture. An ICE Health Service Corps budget forecast noted at least seven detained people were on hunger strike in February 2026.

Celestin Dima, a gay asylum seeker from Burkina Faso, fled kidnapping, military persecution and police torture after being outed before crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in 2024. An Arizona immigration judge granted him withholding of removal, finding he would likely face persecution if deported home, but ICE held him at the Eloy Detention Center for nearly two years while searching for a third country willing to accept him, considering Ghana, Cameroon and Uganda—all countries where homosexuality is criminalized. While detained, he grew depressed, stopped eating, and was placed in solitary confinement for two weeks. A federal judge ordered his release in June 2026 after granting a joint habeas petition, but ICE redetained him on July 17 during a mandatory check-in at a field office in Lower Manhattan. He was then transferred through detention facilities in New Jersey and near Dallas, fitted with a GPS ankle monitor, and scheduled for deportation without being told in advance where he would be sent.

A Cuban national held at Florence Correctional Center in Arizona staged multiple hunger strikes to protest what he described as inhumane detention conditions and lack of transparency regarding his asylum claims. He alleges that ICE subjected him to solitary confinement and restrictive measures to isolate him from legal counsel and advocacy groups after his protests gained attention. He was subsequently deported to Ecuador, a third country, which terminated his ability to participate in U.S. legal proceedings.

Approximately 300 immigrants detained at Delaney Hall, a privately operated ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey, launched a hunger and labor strike beginning May 25, 2026, to protest conditions including spoiled and expired food, inadequate medical care, overcrowding, filthy bathrooms, lack of hot water, and denial of medical treatment. Detainee Elder Guerra, a Guatemalan immigrant, suffered a head injury after slipping in the shower and was placed in isolation rather than receiving proper treatment. Martin Soto, arrested by ICE four months earlier while buying diapers, remained detained despite a judge blocking his removal from the facility. Detainees reported retaliation by facility staff, including beatings, solitary confinement for strikers, and confiscation of personal items. The facility, operated by Community Education Centers, faced scrutiny for a pattern of medical neglect and rights violations, with sustained crowds of protesters gathering outside in solidarity.

Brady Tillett, an asylum seeker from Belize, has been detained by ICE at the California City Detention Facility in Kern County for nearly two years. In a Los Angeles Times op-ed, he describes inhumane conditions including forced labor, medical neglect, and retaliation for advocating for others' medical care. Tillett has filed habeas petitions resulting in the release of several other detainees and is participating in broader detention resistance efforts including hunger strikes and labor strikes to challenge U.S. immigration detention practices and demand closure of the facility.

A 10-year-old girl, Nayeli Gomez, protested outside Delaney Hall ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, where her diabetic father has been detained for nearly a year. During her birthday visit, she was denied family visitation by ICE agents. The girl fainted and sustained injuries outside the facility during a confrontation in which a female guard cursed at and insulted her. Her visit occurred amid ongoing labor and hunger strikes by detainees protesting inhumane conditions, including rotten food, lack of medical care, and poor sanitation. Activists expressed concern that a large influx of federal immigration officers entering the facility may signal transfers of detainees to disrupt organizing efforts.

Kyon Shakeel Swaso, a 35-year-old Belizean immigrant detained at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California, organized a hunger strike to protest conditions at the facility. After speaking with members of Congress about inhumane conditions at Adelanto, Swaso was transferred to facilities in Texas and Louisiana without notice, then deported to Belize. Immigrant rights groups and advocates alleged the deportation was retaliatory action by the Department of Homeland Security in response to his activism and congressional testimony.

Gabriela Soto's husband has been detained at Delaney Hall ICE facility in Newark since January. Soto and her children have been repeatedly denied visits more than 10 times due to alleged dress code violations, including rejection of her 11-month-old's onesie and her 4-year-old's leggings as 'provocative.' The facility has also faced scrutiny for unsanitary conditions and tuberculosis control issues, with mass protests erupting outside and detainees reportedly participating in a hunger strike.

Beginning May 27, 2026, hundreds of detainees at Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed private immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey operated by GEO Group under contract to ICE, initiated a hunger and labor strike protesting conditions including expired and contaminated food infested with worms, forced labor at wages as low as $1 per day, stiflingly hot conditions due to ventilation problems, and reports that female detainees had been groped by a guard. Federal data showed that of 591 detainees held at the facility, only 76 (about 13 percent) had criminal convictions and 123 (about 21 percent) had pending criminal charges. Organizer Martin Soto led the strike and was transferred to another facility during escalation. Some detainees had been held for 8 to 12 months. Outside the facility, protesters gathered nightly and clashed with federal police and state troopers in riot gear. ICE responded with chemical agents including pepper spray and pepper balls, armored vehicles, and batons against both detainees and external protesters, with at least 90 arrests of external protesters since May 26. Detainees involved in the strike faced retaliation including solitary confinement and transfers to other facilities. The action was part of at least six concurrent hunger strikes at immigration detention facilities nationwide.

Beginning May 25, 2026, hundreds of protesters gathered outside Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey, to support detainees staging a hunger strike over poor living conditions including moldy and expired food, overcrowded cells, and lack of air conditioning. The 1,000-bed facility, operated by the GEO Group under a $1 billion contract and opened in early 2025, became the site of escalating confrontations over several days. ICE agents and New Jersey State Police deployed pepper spray, tear gas, batons, and horses against demonstrators who formed human chains and used makeshift shields. Senator Andy Kim was exposed to pepper spray, a U.S. military veteran providing medical assistance was detained, and an ICE agent supervisor was filmed pushing a photographer off a public sidewalk. At least 80 people were arrested, with some charged with rioting after authorities imposed a curfew, and Congresswoman LaMonica McIver was later charged with assaulting officers. Mayor Ras Baraka announced plans to shut down the facility and to sue the GEO Group, while the state filed a lawsuit seeking unrestricted health inspections.

Senator Andy Kim visited Delaney Hall, an ICE detention center in Newark, to mediate between protesters and detainees conducting a hunger strike. ICE agents fired tear gas at Kim and demonstrators while the senator stood between them with his arms raised. Kim reported witnessing detained individuals, including an 18-year-old high school student and a woman who had suffered a miscarriage, under poor conditions. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill was denied entry but heard complaints from family members about spoiled food and lack of medical care.

At least 20 detainees at Desert View Annex (Adelanto ICE Processing Center) in Adelanto, California, launched a hunger strike in mid-May 2026 to protest inadequate health care, food portions, unsafe conditions, and demand bond reform and accountability. The facility, operated by the GEO Group, experienced four deaths between September 2025 and March 2026. A lawyer with the National Day Labor Organization described the hunger strike as a last resort when other options have been exhausted. One detainee's wife spoke publicly about the inhumane treatment at the facility. The facility's population increased dramatically from 424 detainees in 2023 to 2,087 in 2025.