Immigration Highlights of the Week: Hunger Strike at Detention Center; Suicides Among Detainees on the Rise, but ICE’s Strategy Remains Unchanged
The inhumane conditions at ICE detention centers led a group of immigrants at the Delaney Hall facility in Newark, New Jersey, to begin a hunger strike over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Federal and state lawmakers who visited the facility to investigate the allegations were met with a hostile reception from agents tasked with controlling protests outside the building.
The Associated Press reported that six people were arrested during confrontations with federal agents.
New Jersey Democratic Senator Andy Kim was hit by a pepper ball and was later mocked by DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who claimed that Kim “had no business being there,” even though federal lawmakers have the authority to visit these facilities to verify prevailing conditions.
Detainees complain of a lack of adequate medical care, including a woman who allegedly suffered a miscarriage and received no assistance. They also reported that the food provided to them is spoiled and that conditions are unsanitary and deplorable.
However, as La Opinión reported, both Mullin and Border Czar Tom Homan downplayed the allegations, stating that no matter what the detainees do, nothing will stop the administration’s plans to carry out its wave of mass deportations.
“Hunger strikes do not work. So they can put themselves in a position where they’re not eating, but it’s not going to cause them to be released. We are going to continue to arrest people. We’ll continue to detain people.” Homan said.
“And matter of fact, if it gets bad enough and the prisoners feel like they’re putting themselves in extreme danger, medical danger, then we’ll force-feed them,” he added.
Mullin, for his part, responded on X, stating: “There’s only a handful of individuals who refuse to eat because they want their ethnic food. They can go back to their countries and get whatever food they want. The fact is: we’re giving them the calories they want. This isn’t Holiday Inn,” Mullin wrote.
Private detention centers, funded by billions in taxpayer dollars, generate significant profits for operators while keeping detainees in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions without access to preventive or routine medical care. There are reports of denial of emergency care, withholding of medication for chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, and cases where medical assistance arrives too late. Reports also include physical, sexual, and psychological abuse at these facilities. There have been a record number of deaths in recent years and months.
The Associated Press reports an increase in suicides at these centers.
La Opinión reported that “an Associated Press investigation revealed an unprecedented increase in the number of suicides among immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during President Donald Trump’s second term, raising new alarms about detention conditions and access to mental health care in the United States.”
“According to the report, at least 10 detainees have committed suicide since January 2025, a figure that far exceeds the agency’s historical records. Since last October, seven deaths have already been officially classified as suicides, making this the deadliest year on record within ICE’s immigration detention system,” the newspaper added.
“Something is deeply wrong from any public health or mental health perspective,” stated Dr. Sanjay Basu, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco.
La Opinión added that “according to the analysis, several centers ignored obvious signs of emotional distress, delayed psychological treatment, and left individuals considered at risk without adequate supervision. Most of the deceased were Hispanic men between the ages of 19 and 45 from Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, and other Latin American countries. Seven of them had no history of violent crimes in the United States.”
As a result of Trump’s immigration policy, detentions have increased, with more than 60,000 detainees in private prisons at any given moment.
The government continues to acquire facilities to house more people, as it has set out to strip hundreds of thousands of immigrants of protections they previously had through programs that have been eliminated, such as TPS or humanitarian parole, among others.
In fact, the new directive requiring applicants to apply for permanent residency from abroad continues to raise concerns.
Many immigrants could be negatively affected by this policy because if they do not leave the United States to process their green card application abroad, they could become subject to unlawful presence bars, making them more vulnerable to detention and deportation.
Trump’s strategy has focused on making it more difficult for millions of immigrants to maintain legal status by eliminating or not renewing programs that provided them with protection, such as DACA, effectively placing more people at risk of detention and deportation as a result of policy changes.
La Opinión reported that the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) warned of the dangers of the change. Shev Dalal-Dheini, senior director of Government Relations, stated that “rather than improving the immigration system and enhancing our security, this policy risks penalizing those who are trying to comply with the law.”
At least one encouraging note
La Opinión reported that “a federal judge in California temporarily blocked a Trump administration policy that allowed for the detention and deportation of immigrants who were victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, and other serious crimes, even when they had pending immigration applications.”
“According to the ruling, DHS must provisionally restore immigration protections for applicants for U and T visas and protections under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) while the litigation proceeds. The ruling also orders the return to the United States of three immigrants who had been deported despite having active immigration proceedings.”
Quote of the week:
“To those unfamiliar with the issue, this might seem like a simple technical change in procedure. It is not. This is a profound change with serious consequences for individuals, families, and businesses across the country. It is yet another attempt to obstruct the legal immigration system, making it slower, stricter, and more unpredictable,” said Ben Johnson, executive director of AILA, regarding the USCIS memo that would require certain immigrants to apply for their green cards from their home countries even if they are already in the United States.