Rights group says detained immigrants stage Hunger Strike

BAYVIEW - Immigrant rights groups on Wednesday demonstrated outside a federal detention center here to draw attention to illegal immigrants who they said were waging a hunger strike to protest abuse.

About 70 to 200 inmates launched a hunger strike on Monday to protest physical and verbal abuse at the Port Isabel Detention Center, said Anayanse Garza of the Southwest Workers Union, a human rights group.

But a federal official said only one inmate was on a hunger strike.

Nina Pruneda, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Antonio, denied accusations that inmates were abused.

About 20 demonstrators gathered across the road from the detention center, holding banners that carried slogans like, "Detainees are starving for justice."

Garza led a group of demonstrators on a march onto detention center property in an attempt to hand-deliver a letter to administrators.
Garza presented the letter to a government agent who drove in a van to order the marchers to turn back.

"You have to stay on the other side of the street. This is private government property," said the agent who identified himself only as A. Machacek.

Machacek told Garza he would present the letter to administrators.

"I understand your concern and I respect that," he said.

In the letter, Garza wrote, "... we want you to know that if any harm should fall on any of the detainees on hunger strike we are holding you personally responsible."

"Our main priority is to ask for you to recognize the hunger strike publicly and allow community members (to) be allowed into the facility to monitor the detainees on hunger strike so that we can have a transparent process," Garza wrote.

Benigno Peña held a long banner that read, "Illegal aliens like all people have inherent human rights."

Some of his clients are held at the detention center, said Peña, director of the South Texas Immigration Council, an immigrant rights group.
Government officials restrict information on the conditions of inmates, Peña said.

"It's almost like a kind of secret government and unfortunately we support it with our taxes," Peña said.

Pruneda said health officials are monitoring the inmate on a hunger strike.

"ICE is committed to ensuring that all detainees are maintained in a safe, secure and humane environment," Pruneda said. "We also treat
our detainees with respect and dignity in a fair and humane manner."