Migrants end hunger strike to protest detentions

A group of 24 migrants who were protesting their detainment in the U.S. ended their hunger strike on Sunday.

A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement told The Hill on Sunday that the group had all eaten.

One hundred and fifty people at the River Correctional Center in Ferriday, La., began a hunger strike last week, but according to government officials only two dozen of them consistently denied food.

{mosads}The strikers told the Associated Press last week that they are upset over being denied bond and the lack of attention they say their asylum claims get.

A member of a group who met with the strikers told the AP that the migrants have not had a fair chance at immigration hearings.

“It’s a charade of due process,” Rachel Taber, an organizer with the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice who met with the immigrants this week, told the AP.

“Their perception is that this will not be a real justice or a real court process.” 

ICE told The Hill in a statement it respects the strikers’ rights, but seeks to explain the costs of not eating and closely monitors their health. 

“ICE does not retaliate in any way against hunger strikers,” a spokesman said last week.