Trump administration forced treatment on hunger striker in ICE detention, document reveals

A detainee gestures near a window during ongoing protests against ICE outside the Delaney Hall detention center, in Newark, New Jersey, on 5 June 2026. Photograph: Caitlin Ochs/Reuters View image in fullscreen A detainee gestures near a window during ongoing protests against ICE outside the Delaney Hall detention center, in Newark, New Jersey, on 5 June 2026. Photograph: Caitlin Ochs/Reuters Trump administration forced treatment on hunger striker in ICE detention, document reveals ICE report reviewed by the Guardian discloses a patient was ‘subject to force feeding, hydration or urinary catheterization’, which experts have described as torture The Trump administration subjected at least one person undertaking a hunger strike in immigrant detention to forcible medical treatment – engaging in medical practice that healthcare associations and international human rights groups have described as torture. A document from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ( ICE ) health service agency, reviewed by the Guardian, confirms for the first time that the administration has used forced treatment on a hunger striker since Donald Trump began his second term. The document, published online in February by the ICE Health Service Corps (IHSC), discloses that an unnamed patient who began hunger strikes between October and December of last year and “was subject to force feeding, hydration, or forced urinary catheterization, or involuntary blood draws”. It also notes that at least seven detained people were on hunger strike this February, and that IHSC has forecasted a total budget of $4,504.75 for “external medical care” of hunger strike patients and a total budget of $168,928.01 for the fiscal year of 2026 based on costs from last year. He was shot at by ICE, then wrongfully accused. His nightmare had only just begun Read more “This revelation is shocking,” said Eunice Cho, an immigrant rights attorney who co-authored a 2021 report documenting the many medical complications that resulted from forced treatment for hunger strikers in ICE detention. It remains unclear how many hunger strikers and forced treatments ICE has accounted for since February. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, did not respond to the Guardian’s questions about what sort of forced treatment was administered to the detainee in the IHSC report. This summer, hundreds of people staged hunger strikes at detention centers across the US. Trump officials have repeatedly denied that detainees are rejecting food to protest unsanitary conditions, medical neglect and what strikers have described as physical and psychological “torture” in detention facilities. At least 300 detainees began a hunger and labor strike at the Delaney Hall detention center in New Jersey from May to June, and their actions became a national flashpoint, and sustained crowds of protesters gathered outside the facility in solidarity. Advocates said the detainees ended their strike after facing retalia