Immigration officials are reportedly force-feeding migrants on a hunger strike

U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

America's immigration court system is facing a backlog of cases that will take years to sort through. Some migrants have been sent to Mexico to await asylum hearings, while others are being detained in the U.S. as their status is processed.

But while embarking on a hunger strike to protest conditions in immigration facilities, some detainees in El Paso, Texas have been force fed by immigration officials, The Associated Press reported Thursday.

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement has "a more narrow definition of hunger strike," AP says. But a spokeswoman confirmed Thursday that 11 detainees at the El Paso Processing Center are refusing food and four more are doing so across Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, and San Francisco. In a Wednesday statement to the El Paso Times, ICE said six strikers are "currently being hydrated and fed non-consensually under court orders" using nasal tubes.

ICE also said it is monitoring the striking detainees' food and water intake "to protect their health and safety," AP writes. But one relative countered that, saying his two nephews have had nosebleeds and been "hospitalized, back and forth." A self-described dissident in detention and an attorney both said hunger strikers are being put in solitary confinement "as punishment." Read more at The Associated Press.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.