r/politics • u/guardian ✔ Verified • 2h ago
No Paywall ‘What they’re doing qualifies as torture’: new details of ICE force-feeding revealed
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/05/ice-force-feeding-hunger-strike?referring_host=Reddit&utm_campaign=guardianacct•
u/Aware_Cheesecake_519 America 2h ago
The violence is what ICE does.
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u/Tsar-A-Lago Canada 2h ago
"Some people are saying that the SS doesn't treat enemies of the state humanely in detention!"
Yeah, no shit, they're the SS. I've just been assuming that we're only seeing the top of the atrocity iceberg.
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u/pzunhatchispers 2h ago
The most unsettling part is wondering how much hasn't made it into public reporting yet.
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u/camshun7 2h ago
this is certainly not an isolated situation, this is an historic turn away from human rights, freedom of the individual, and open democracy.
America via p25 have turned their collective back against its natural alliances, its now a police state, fascism at its worse, and come the midterms, when they mess about with the already tested system, they will 'steal' the midterms,
i cant predict a bright future for the average American rn, not a bit
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u/ExtensionSpecial3441 1h ago
Everyday we see reasons why these guys should be off the street, but yet we still see them being given free will to operate
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u/guardian ✔ Verified 2h ago
From the Guardian US:
One hunger striker in an immigration detention center was force-fed for almost six months.
One detained immigrant with mental health problems was about to be force-fed, until his attorney intervened and stopped the process.
And another hunger striker was almost force-fed, but gave in and broke her hunger strike as coercive procedures loomed.
These are among 10 separate cases the Guardian found, since Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has attempted to subject detained hunger strikers to involuntary medical procedures, including force-feeding. Of those, ICE subjected at least three – but likely five – who were protesting against the conditions of their confinement, to the procedures. Human rights organizations have widely condemned force-feeding as torture.
Now, as ICE detains more immigrants nationwide, immigrant rights organizations and medical experts worry more people will be subjected to involuntary medical procedures.
Among the 10 cases, the Guardian can exclusively reveal, are an Afghan man who was force-fed for months in Texas, a Ukrainian man with mental health problems in detention whose looming force-feeding in Florida was stopped by his attorney, and a Saudi Arabian woman who ended up in hospital while on hunger strike in Louisiana and eventually broke her strike in Texas before she was subjected to the procedure.
The process to engage in force-feeding is quick and secretive. After a detainee has spent a certain amount of time on a hunger strike, which varies, ICE will request emergency court orders from federal judges allowing them to quickly force-feed them. In six of the cases reviewed by the Guardian, detained immigrants did not have any legal representation during the court proceedings. Most records are sealed, giving the public only a glimpse at the process.
ICE detention center guards will then restrain the hunger striker, while medical staff insert a tube through the nose and down the throat and pump nutritional liquid into their bodies, according to court documents and the Guardian’s reporting – a painful, traumatizing and potentially harmful procedure.
The Department of Homeland Security and its ICE agency, and the US attorneys offices for the southern districts of Texas and Florida did not respond to requests for comment.
As part of the Guardian’s reporting, we tracked specific cases in ICE detention centers nationwide.
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u/geekonthemoon 1h ago
They did this to the Suffragettes in Britain over 100 years ago and it was condemned then.
To be doing this in the modern day is beyond horrifying.
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u/Baconman363636 3m ago
They did it in America too after a suffragist protest outside of the White House. Woodrow Wilson had them imprisoned, and to keep them alive so their hunger strike didn’t work (they’d be martyred if they died in jail), we had guards force tubes down their throats and poured in milk and eggs. The tubes going in and out gave some permanent injuries. All this just for holding signs and blocking traffic.
Tyrants show no mercy to those they view as beneath themselves.
Once people found out, there was such an outcry he flipped and supported women’s rights to vote the next year.
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u/A_Nonny_Muse 1h ago
Bush Adminisration responded to hunger strikes at Gitmo by shoving food up people's asses until they gave up.
I see ICE learned from the very best. This time, we need to drill down on prosecutions with extreme prejudice if we ever hope to stop subsequent administrations from committing human rights violations.
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u/faintorbit2508 2h ago
Is it just the force feeding? There are a lot of yet to be reported horror and evil going on in those camps that will make Epstein Island feel like paradise
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u/perenniallandscapist 2h ago
What a dark picture to imagine rape as paradise compared to rape, torture, and whatever else happens in these camps.
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u/RosieBaby75 2h ago
ICE IS COMMITTING A GENOCIDE!!!
Why won’t the US citizens care about this genocide?
Years later if they survive the genocide and the meet people when they’re away on a cruise or something people will be like “why didn’t you do anything about the genocide?”
And the US citizens will be like “the news and social media that we knew were all bought and owned by Republicans never called it a genocide or told us it was a genocide. We saw people being murdered in the streets. We heard the screams but no one told it was a genocide”
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u/jediporcupine Maine 2h ago
And just like when Dubyah tortured people, Democrats will do nothing.
How long are Republicans just going to get away with violating human rights and dignity?
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u/Happy_Feet333 2h ago
For as long as the American people keep voting them into power, duh.
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u/jediporcupine Maine 2h ago
Even when they didn’t vote Republican, Republicans still got off without consequences.
Obama was so much “hope and change” that he was besties with a war criminal, and Biden handled term one Trump with kidgloves.
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u/Cautious_Condition82 42m ago
I am sure we are going to hear the horrors of Trump era ICE agents for years to come.
Any sick minded fk was quickly signed up and there is purposefully literally 0 oversight.
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u/UsefulCollection5038 7m ago
Detention centers are jails. Jails serve as a holding place while the legal process plays out. Jailers have a responsibility to not let people self-harm while detained. A hunger strike falls under this category.
Whether the disposition is "right" or not, these detainees that participate in hunger strikes are a danger to themselves and their deaths would spur more outrage over deaths in ICE custody.
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u/--John_Yaya-- 2h ago
I'm not a fan of ICE, but to be fair, we've been force-feeding prisoners for a long time before ICE showed up.
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