Hunger Strikes by Immigration Detainees

The Los Angeles Times reports on a hunger strike by approximately 300 immigration detainees at one of the largest immigration detention centers in California, the Adelanto Detention Facility.  According to the article, detainees are protesting poor conditions at the center, including poor medical treatment.  The GEO Group, one of several for-profit corporations that specialize in immigration detention, runs the Adelanto facility, which is located about 90 miles from Los Angeles.  In the last week, hunger strikes have also reportedly taken place at other immigration detention centers, such as the T. Don Hutto detention center in Taylor, TX.  Unfortunately – as the work of scholars such as Cesar Cuauhtemoc Garcia Hernandez, Anil Kalhan and others suggests – the fact that detainees across the country have taken to refusing food in order to bring attention to their concerns about mistreatment should come as no surprise.  

-JKoh