Trump's ICE Sought Force-Feeding for 10+ Hunger Strikers as Detention Protests Spread
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 3
Trump's ICE Sought Force-Feeding for 10+ Hunger Strikers as Detention Protests Spread
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 3
Summary
At least 10 immigrant detainees faced court-backed involuntary medical procedures in 2025 and 2026, with ICE definitely force-treating three and likely two more, a Guardian investigation found.
Hundreds of pages of court records show DHS sought emergency orders to restrain hunger strikers for force-feeding, IV hydration, blood draws and urine collection, often before detainees could object and frequently without lawyers.
One Kurdish asylum seeker at Port Isabel in Texas was force-fed for nearly eight months until deportation; another there underwent forced procedures for nearly six months, and a detainee at Krome in Miami for nearly three months.
Five other detainees in Texas, Arizona and Florida ended their strikes as the procedures loomed, while filings show ICE also cited staff morale, public perception and detention-center order alongside preventing deaths.
The practice predates Trump, but advocates and medical ethicists say rising ICE detention under his administration could trigger more hunger strikes and more procedures they consider torture.