Day 82: The hunger strike is a protest of last resort for South Asian asylum seekers

Five South Asian men on the 82nd day of their hunger strike are on the precipice of death as their organs begin to shut down in the LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana.
“The men in Jena-LaSalle are on the brink of death," said Lakshmi Sridaran, Interim Executive Director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT).

"No one should have to go to such great lengths simply to have their cases heard and to gain their freedom. They should not be in detention in the first place and the only legitimate alternative is release.“ said  Sridaran.

Freedom for Immigrants (FFI) has filed two complaints with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) on behalf of the five men, demanding DHS address the systemic civil rights violations the men have faced under ICE custody.

The first CRCL complaint calls on ICE to use its prosecutorial discretion to release all five men. Each of them have formal sponsors in the United States committed to supporting and housing them while they fight their asylum case.

The second complaint, submitted in collaboration with Physicians for Human Rights, addresses the significant delays in receiving critical medical records from ICE. Beginning in November, an FFI affiliated volunteer submitted multiple requests to ICE for these records, with the consent of the men engaging in hunger strikes. However, ICE has refused to release these records. Without this critical information, independent physicians cannot conduct an assessment of the medical treatment these men are receiving while in detention.

“Under ICE’s own policies, people in detention have the right to independent medical evaluation. However, staff at the LaSalle Detention Facility have denied our repeated requests, which were made in line with their policies, for accurate and updated medical records," said Dr. Catherine Jones, MD, a physician in New Orleans.

"This makes it impossible for us to have a clear understanding of the hunger strikers’ current medical conditions and completely negates their access to independent evaluations, which is especially crucial as they enter the critical time in their hunger strike when vital organ functioning begins to shut down,” saud Hibes,

Medical review of individuals on hunger strikes by medical experts not connected with the government is critical because of ICE’s history of systemic medical neglect of individuals -- from children separated from their parents to the hunger strikers -- in their custody. 

In October last year, Dr. Parveen Parmar reviewed the medical records of a man who had been on hunger strike for approximately three months while detained at the El Paso ICE Processing Center. Upon review of the medical documents Dr. Parmar stated that it was “the worst medical care I have seen in my 10 years of practice.”

The hunger strike has long been the only way to resist, the weapon of last resort, by the powerless and disenfranchised. It can involve either a time-limited symbolic refusal of food, or – in more extreme cases like the one at the LaSalle detention facility – a prolonged fast that eventually leads to loss of cognition, organ damage and even death.

Mahatma Gandhi used political fasting to great effect against the British in India and to pressure Hindus and Muslims to halt sectarian violence. He came to regard the hunger strike as one of the most powerful tools in the arsenal of non-violent resistance.

Gandhi's longest hunger strike was only 21 days but it was long enough to embarass the British government eventually leading to colonizers to grant independence to India.

From their strict enforcement of questionable immigration policies including the detention of asylum seekers who have not committed any crimes, the US government under Donald Trump appears to be a more stubborn animal than the British colonizers.

“The growing number of hunger strikes in ICE prisons across the country are no coincidence. It is indicative of complete disbelief in a fair legal process and the lengths ICE is willing to go to indefinitely detain them. Some of these men have been locked up for nearly 2 years," said Sofia Casini, FFI's southern regional coordinator. 

"We are deeply concerned that ICE appears willing to let these men die in detention to make an example of them rather than be released to community, where each man has family or close friends willing to provide housing and support.” she said. 

With Gandhi's example, the detained men know that the refusal of food can shame the authorities who bear ultimate responsibility for the lives of those in their custody. In this way, it can be understood as a form of “moral jiu jitsu” that uses the overwhelming power of the government rationalization against it.

By their action, hunger strikers also exert some measure of control against a system that strips them of their humanity. They demonstrate that they are sovereign over their own bodies and that the most serious decision of all – over life and death – is still in their hands.