ICE force feeds Indian refugees on hunger strike

A MAN FROM INDIA is being force fed by ICE staff in a detention center in El Paso, Texas, according to reports by the Associated Press.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has confirmed there nine detained men who are on hunger strike and are being force-fed under court order.

One of the hunger strikers, a 22-year-old man from India who called The Associated Press Feb. 1, described being dragged from his cell three times a day and strapped down on a bed. He said a team of people force-feed him by pouring liquid into tubes pushed through his nose.

The man, whom AP is identifying only by his last name Singh out of family concerns for his safety, stopped eating more than a month ago. He reportedly is one of several Indians on hunger strike.

Singh's uncle, a California resident, said his nephew along with a cousin fled their native state of Punjab seek asylum in the U.S. to escape the violence in that Indian state.

In mid-January, ICE obtained court orders to begin non-consensual hydration and feeding, and so for weeks they’ve had nasal tubes inserted in their noses and IVs in their arms.

Ruby Kaur, a Michigan-based attorney representing one of the hunger strikers, said her client had been force-fed and put on an IV after more than three weeks without eating or drinking water.

“They go on hunger strike, and they are put into solitary confinement and then the ICE officers kind of psychologically torture them, telling the asylum seekers they will send them back to Punjab,” Kaur told IndiaWest.

"They tie us on the force-feeding bed, and then they put a lot of liquid into the tubes, and the pressure is immense so we end up vomiting it out," Singh said to AP. "We can't talk properly, and we can't breathe properly. The pipe is not an easy process, but they try to push it down our noses and throats."

Speaking through an interpreter, Singh said he has lost 50 pounds since he began his hunger strike. He said he is refusing food to protest guards' unfair treatment of him and other detainees from Punjab, reports AP. The news agency said the hunger strikers are being denied bond while detainees from other countries were allowed out.

Most of the 30 hunger strikers are from India or Cuba, according to U.S-based IndiaWest.
Detainees, a relative and an attorney told the AP that nearly 30 detainees, mostly from India and Cuba, have been refusing food and drink there to protest what they say is rampant verbal abuse and threats of deportation from guards. They are also upset about lengthy lock ups while awaiting legal proceedings.

ICE issued a statement saying the agency fully respects the rights of all people to voice their opinion without interference.

"ICE does not retaliate in any way against hunger strikers. ICE explains the negative health effects of not eating to our detainees. For their health and safety, ICE closely monitors the food and water intake of those detainees identified as being on a hunger strike," the agency said.

“They tie us on the force-feeding bed, and then they put a lot of liquid into the tubes, and the pressure is immense so we end up vomiting it out,”  Singh told AP. “We can’t talk properly, and we can’t breathe properly. The pipe is not an easy process, but they try to push it down our noses and throats.”

When the U.S. used forced feeding of hunger strikers at Guantanomo the practice received international condemnation. The International Red Cross, American Medical Association and World Medical Association condemn force-feeding hunger strikers as unethical.

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Agreement reached for SF State's ethnic studies

Some students and faculty of the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University.

IT LOOKED something like a scene from 1969 on the San Francisco State University with a maelstrom involving student protests, ethnic studies and an Asian/American president. The only thing missing - thank goodness - were the jackbooted, baton-wielding SWAT teams.

Last week, an agreement was reached that will strengthen the existence of the College of Ethnic Studies.

In a letter addressed to the students and faculty and "our Ethnic Studies family around the world," and signed by SFSU President Leslie Wong, the university administration reached an agreement with four students who have been staging a hunger strike for 10 days. The letter agreed to 11 of the 26 demands, including reallocating funding for two full-time tenure track faculty appointments in Africana Studies, reallocating funding for four work-study student positions, working towards departmental status for the Race and Resistance Studies program, and developing a program in Pacific Islander Studies. The agreement will result "in the additional investment of $482,806 in support of advancing the College — in addition to the $250,000 commitment for AY 2016-17 earlier already made by the President."

“It’s disappointing that it took a hunger strike and that it took 10 days into a hunger strike to get it to these negotiations,” said Sofia Cardena to the Golden Gate Xpress. She is an organizer for the Defend and Advance Ethnic Studies movement, which rallied student support for the college. “Even though we didn’t get everything we wanted, I think we can still call this a victory.”

On day nine of the hunger strike by four students, one of them had to be hospitalized. The next day, the compromise agreement returning some was announced.

The College, born out of the Third World Strike of 1969 when S.I. Hayakawa was president, was threatened earlier this year by what students felt was disproportionate budget cuts that would have devastated the college. While many colleges have departments of ethnic studies, SFSU is the only campus giving college status to ethnic studies.

According to the most recent data from SF State’s 2015 Data Book, with 232 students enrolled in the College of Ethnic Studies in Fall 2014, less than one percent of the University, it is one of the smallest colleges on campus.

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