About 40 mothers being held at an immigration detention camp in Karnes, Texas, have launched a hunger strike to protest the detainment of their children as the families await immigration and asylum hearings, according to detainees and advocates working on their behalf.
Kenia Galeano, a 26-year-old mother from Honduras, said in a phone interview that the mothers will not eat, work or send their children to school at the detention center until each of the detainees is released. She said the mothers came to the United States seeking shelter, but are being treated as prisoners.
“We’re many mothers, not just me,” she said. “We want freedom for our children. It’s not right to continue to detain us.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they were unaware of any residents who actually agreed to participate in a hunger strike. They said ICE is closely monitoring the situation for any potential heath and safety issues. ICE is also investigating claims from residents at the Karnes facility who allege a member of a non-profit group encouraged residents to stop eating at the facility to protest their detention.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fully respects the rights of all people to voice their opinion without interference, and all detainees, including those in family residential facilities such as Karnes, are permitted to do so,” Nina Pruneda, an ICE spokeswoman, said in a statement.
More than 80 women had initially signed a petition to take part in the strike, but many dropped out after at least two women were placed into isolation with their children in the detention center’s clinic, according to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, an advocacy and legal services group working with in Texas. Johana De Leon, a legal assistant with the group said other mothers were warned they could lose custody of their children as a result of participating in the strike.
Since July, more than 2,500 immigrants, mostly women and children, have been detained at family detention centers.
The Karnes detention camp is one of three facilities set up to house mothers and children in the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is boosting its efforts to house mothers and children who have arrived in the country illegally. Advocates say it’s inappropriate to house women and children who have legitimate asylum claims. But the government says it’s important to send a message back to their home countries that those who cross the border illegally will be captured held and returned.
ICE officials said family residential centers are an effective and humane way to maintain family unity as families go through immigration proceedings.
In a phone interview with a reporter, Galeano said no one outside the facility encouraged the mothers from participating in the strike. She said she’d been held for five months, but that some women in the facility had been there with their children for 10 months.
She shares a small room with three other mothers and their children. She said the detention center has had a dramatic impact on her 2-year-old son, whose moods have taken emotional swings. She said he’s become depressed and has lost weight because he’s not eating. She said the food is not culturally appropriate.
“The children don’t eat,” she said. “The conditions here are not right. They’re not good for children.”
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