A group of people detained inside a privately-run Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) jail in Georgia have launched a mass hunger strike this week to protest against their prolonged detention and the facility’s conditions, according to advocates and family members. Advocates estimate at least 73 detained immigrants are participating in the hunger strike inside the Folkston D Ray James ICE processing center in south-east Georgia. The Folkston facility, a former state prison, is run by the private prison company GEO Group under a contract with ICE.
Some of the men participating in the hunger strike released a video and an open letter, requesting they be released while they continue pursuing their asylum and immigration cases. Two Russian asylum seekers detained in Folkston also released a document they wrote, outlining what they claim to be “violations” inside, including allegations of substandard medical care, threats by GEO Group guards, moldy food and a lack of due process. The majority of the men who signed the letter are asylum seekers from a wide range of countries, including Russia, China, Sudan, Afghanistan, Nepal and others.
One of the lead organizers of the hunger strike, a Russian asylum seeker named Idris Makhmudov, has reportedly been placed in solitary confinement this week, according to Monica Whatley, an organizer in Georgia from the Campaign to Shut Down the Folkston ICE processing center. The letter further reads: “We come from different countries, races, believes [sic], and background, but we share one thing in common: we came to the United States seeking protection and have been detained since then.” The men say in their letter that they have been locked up for a long time, between 16 months and almost three years, from the moment each arrived in the US “yet have never been accused of any crime”. They argue they should be free while their legal cases go through the immigration court system.
One of the men participating in the hunger strike is an asylum seeker from Yemen who is suffering from lung cancer and has a US citizen child, advocates told the Guardian. The reports of the hunger strike at the Folkston facility represent the latest protest inside an ICE detention center, as the Trump administration continues with its aggressive anti-immigrant crackdown. GEO Group referred all questions to ICE.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE’s parent agency, did not respond to detailed questions about the allegations or requests for comment. ICE, along with other federal agencies and local officials deputized to carry out immigration arrests, have been quietly increasing their arrests nationwide. As a result, rising numbers of immigrants and asylum seekers are detained in federal facilities like Folkston.
The Folkston facility opened in 1997 but began detaining people in ICE custody in 2018. Last year, the Florida-based, for-profit company GEO Group extended its contract with ICE to expand the facility’s capacity. The latest ICE data from July of this year shows there were around 2,200 people detained there.
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