Over the last two months, hundreds of immigrant detainees have gone on hunger strikes across the nation to protest their prolonged detention. Not many people have noticed. And despite the fact that many of the detainees are seeking asylum in the United States because they’re afraid of being persecuted if they’re returned, politicians have yet to make changes to the conditions at detention facilities.
That’s why Democratic presidential candidate and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley personally met with former hunger strikers and their family members on Tuesday in an attempt to elevate the issue of immigrant detention.
O’Malley met with two hunger strikers, Mohammad Aminul Islam and Abdullah Jobayer, who are Bangladeshi nationals affiliated with the Bangladesh National Party, the country’s second largest political party. They were among the first wave of 54 detainees to launch a hunger strike at immigration detention facilities back in October.
All of the men on hunger strike were approved for their credible fear findings, a preliminary step in the asylum review process. The ICE agency established policies in 2010 stating that asylum seekers who pass their credible fear interview should be automatically considered for parole from detention. Nonetheless, some of the hunger strikers have been held in immigration detention anywhere between nine months and two years, even though the average detention time hovers around 31 days.
The detainees told O’Malley that the “only memorable part” of their detention was the “one to two hours that we got to spend outside.” Only 19 of those detainees had lawyers, according to an immigrant advocate affiliated with the advocacy group Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM).
Bangladeshi hunger strikers, spent a yr detained even after proving credible fear. #NIIC #StarvingForJustice pic.twitter.com/yNqOs4u6AW
— RI4A (@RI4A) December 15, 2015
O’Malley ended the meeting by criticizing immigration detention, stating that “instead of giving them due process, we’re just rolling out more barbed wire,” according to Reform Immigration for America, an immigrant advocacy group present at the meeting.
O’Malley’s meeting is significant given that families have yet to meet with other Democratic presidential candidates, all of whom support lenient immigration policies for undocumented immigrants and limited immigration detention for immigrants.
On Monday, families of detainees on hunger strike held large banners reading “People are starving for their freedom” and “Do you stand with us?” when Democratic presidential candidate frontrunner Hillary Clinton spoke at the National Immigrant Integration Conference in New York. Just the previous week, families of detainees protested outside her Brooklyn, New York headquarters, calling on her to respond to the fast.
Clinton’s Latino outreach director, Lorella Praeli, met with protesters last week to voice support for their cause. Arturo Carmona, the Latino outreach director for Sen. Bernie Sanders, also supported the hunger strikers in a statement, noting, “Sen. Sanders’ immigration platform promotes alternatives to detention, closes private prisons and would allow thousands of non-violent immigrant detainees to reunite with their families as they wait for their day in court.”
O’Malley has been aggressively pro-immigrant in his campaign, even going to Arizona last week to protest the “shameful” practices of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, known for his anti-immigrant positions and blatant use of racial profiling.
Though O’Malley is now meeting with former detainees, there are many more immigrants in similar circumstances who are still in detention. As of the end of last week, at least 109 immigrant detainees were still on hunger strike in Alabama, California, Colorado, Texas, and New York. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) guidelines have set a guideline acknowledging fasts or strikes only after detainees refuse nine consecutive meals.
A federal judge recently authorized U.S. immigration authorities to perform involuntary blood draws and other medical procedures on at least ten male detainees from Bangladesh who began fasting on December 2 at the Krome Service Processing Center in Miami, Florida, the Associated Press reported.
The post has been corrected to reflect that Abdullah Jobayer, not Sumon Ahmed, met with O’Malley.