Lawyers: ICE Hunger Strikers Facing Retaliation

Advocates and attorneys for immigrant hunger strikers held in New Jersey jails allege that the detainees are being punished for refusing food.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees demanding release while they await court hearings have recently gone on a hunger strike at the Hudson, Essex, and Bergen county jails in New Jersey. To end the strikes, attorney Johanna Zacarias of the Legal Aid Society says detainees are transferred to other facilities and put in solitary confinement. One of her clients at the Hudson County Jail was in a cell without water or a working toilet. 

"That, I think, is potentially another tactic to try to break somebody participating in a hunger strike," she said.

A spokesman for Hudson County says water is available to hunger strikers. ICE denies that recent transfers of hunger strikers were punitive.

As for the allegation about solitary confinement, officials have said that ICE detainees are put in cells by themselves in order for medical staffs to more closely monitor them.

As of Friday, the only ongoing hunger strike in New Jersey was at the Essex County jail, according to ICE.