Immigrant Mothers Stage Hunger Strike for Freedom
A hunger strike of immigrant detainees is in the news. LEESPORT, Pa. — Monday will mark one week since 22 mothers began a hunger strike to demand that they and their children be released from an immigration detention center in the borough of Leesport.
Federal courts have ruled that children, with or without parents, cannot be held in immigration detention for more than 20 days. And the Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, recently claimed the DHS detains families for 20 days on average.
But according to attorney Carol Anne Donohoe, the women on hunger strike at the Berks County Residential Center – and their children – have been held much longer.
“Anywhere from 270 days to a year, including two-year-olds,” Donohoe said. “And in any other case, if they had not been detained, they would have been released to family and been able to fight their cases in court.”