Moms in immigration detention start hunger strike

Edith Osorto, left, 28, feeds her 18 month old son Gabriel Alvarez, both of Honduras in a house where they are staying before leaving to join an aunt in Chicago. The were recently released from Karnes County Resedential Center where they were detained 3 months. The Mennonite House in San Antonio called Casa Maria y Marta, is housing immigrants that have been release from detention centers in Dilley and Karnes County in South Texas. They stay there until they leave to go to cities where they have family members. Friday, March 27, 2015. less Edith Osorto, left, 28, feeds her 18 month old son Gabriel Alvarez, both of Honduras in a house where they are staying before leaving to join an aunt in Chicago. The were recently released from Karnes County ... more Photo: Bob Owen, San Antonio Express-News Photo: Bob Owen, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Moms in immigration detention start hunger strike 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

About 25 women held at the Karnes Family Detention Camp have started a Holy Week hunger strike, seeking the release of themselves and their children, according to Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, a community organization that provides free legal services to underserved immigrants and refugees.

At least 80 women began the fast yesterday, according to RAICES, but that number fell after three women were held in isolation with their children in the detention center’s clinic. Two families have since been released.

“We deserve to be treated with some dignity and that our rights, to the immigration process, are respected,” reads a letter from the women, in part, that was released at a news conference today.

The women say their children aren’t eating well in confinement and that “their health is deteriorating.” Some of the women and children have been in the camp nearly a year.

Allegations of children losing weight, in part because they’re unfamiliar with U.S. food, have plagued family detention centers in the past, and ICE has denied that those in Karnes were losing weight.

ICE said Tuesday afternoon that it’s not aware of any residents participating in the hunger strike, but said the agency is investigating whether a member of a nonprofit encouraged detainees to stop eating out of protest.

The Geo Group Inc., which operates the facility, similarly provided a statement similar to one it gave in February, when Karnes County employees were absolved of allegations of sexual misconduct with detainees by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General:

“The Karnes County Residential Center provides high quality care in a safe, clean, and family friendly environment, and onsite U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel provide direct oversight to ensure compliance with ICE's Family Residential Standards. Our company has consistently, strongly denied allegations to the contrary. Earlier this year, the findings of a comprehensive investigation conducted by the Office of the Inspector General corroborated the unfounded and unsubstantiated nature of prior allegations. Since its activation, the Karnes County Residential Center has, under direction and guidance from ICE, created an open and transparent policy of allowing visits to the Center by the public, elected local and national officials, federal officials from ICE and other government agencies, as well as nongovernmental organizations.”

Immigration officials began detaining families from Central America at the Karnes County center in the summer, after tens of thousands of women and children from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras crossed the border in the Rio Grande Valley last year and claimed asylum.

A federal judge earlier this year struck down ICE’s policy of holding families without bond, but advocates said the bonds being granted, some as high as $15,000, are prohibitively high.