Two Indian hunger strikers released

SCREEN CAPTURE

Demonstrators protest the detention of asylum seekers.

Two of the nine South Asian men who have been on a hunger strike have been released from the El Paso immigration detention center.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa confirmed Thursday that Jasvir Singh and Rajandeep Singh were released on bond from the El Paso Processing Center.

Each man was greeted by a small group of supporters in the parking lot of the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, New Mexico, where they had been sent over the weekend after a three-and-a-half-month stint at the El Paso facility where they have been detained.

“I feel freedom, sir,” said Jasvir Singh, 22, shortly after his release on Tuesday. “The first thing I have to do is take care of my body.” He came back to the Otero detention center on Wednesday for the release of Rajandeep Singh, 23, who is his second cousin. They plan to join family in California.

After The Associated Press revealed ICE was force-feeding nine immigrant detainees through nasal tubes in January, the facility stopped the controversial practice in February under public pressure.

The United Nations human rights office said in February that the force-feeding of immigrant hunger strikers there could violate the U.N. Convention Against Torture.

Immigration judges initially ordered that both men be deported. Their uncle Amrit Singh said they will appeal their immigration cases and join family in California. One man’s attorney said an appeal already was filed.

Supporters have been lobbying for their release for months.

Javier Singh "knows that he faces certain death if he continues to strike and he knows that he also faces death if he’s deported back to his home country,” said Linda Rivas, the executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.

With their release, both Singhs will be able to fight for their asylum claims from outside of detention, said Rivas.

Earlier, two of other hunger strikers were deported back to India.

Rivas said Singh is one of the last people who continues to strike and has been subject to force-feeding, solitary confinement, and has reported instances of physical and verbal abuse.

“It doesn’t matter where you stand on the political spectrum,” Rivas said, “we should be appalled and horrified at the torture that these people were subjected to in the way that they were force-fed.”

The Washington Post stated beside El Paso, there have also been hunger strikes in Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, and San Francisco.

“They go to the extreme of having to hunger strike in order for them to be heard,” Rivas said, “because they’ve been in detention for several months and often times they will be there over a year.”

Rivas continues, “They have viable asylum claims and they are still not released and they are subjected to abuse.”

The Washington Post reported a statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), saying “ICE does not retaliate in any way against hunger strikers,” and that ICE “closely monitors the food and water intake of those detainees identified as being on a hunger strike.”

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