US judge orders force-feeding of immigration detainees
A judge in the US state of Miami has ordered force-feeding of immigration detainees who have been on a hunger strike since early December in protest against their conditions.
US district judge Cecilia Altonaga authorized force-feeding to the inmates who began the strike on December 2.
The inmates, who were brought into the courtroom on wheelchairs, are 10 Bangladeshis, seven of whom still refuse to eat.
“How long are they going to force-feed us? We are willing to die,” said one of the detainees identified as 21-year-old Abdul Awal. “We would rather die here.”
The judge, however, authorized Krome medical staff to force-feed them through nasal-gastric tubes, arguing they have better methods to protest their conditions.
“They are not likely to survive without compelled feeding,” she said.
Previously, the judge (pictured above) had granted a petition from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security to authorize involuntary blood draws and other medical procedures.
The men have each lost up to 15 percent of body weight since they began the strike, according to Krome’s staff doctor, Dalian Caraballo, who described their conditions as dangerous.
Caraballo added that force-feeding them through nasal-gastric tubes would be easier than feeding them intravenously at a hospital.
The detainees were all arrested in Hidalgo, Texas, while attempting to enter the US in 2014 and 2015.
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