Letter in Spanish says 78 women seeking asylum will refuse to use any facility services and that they and their children have been held as long as 10 months

Dozens of mothers seeking asylum who are being held at the Karnes family detention centre in southern Texas have reportedly begun a hunger strike, with 78 women being held signing a letter demanding their release from the centre and announcing a refusal to use any services within the facility.



The letter, written in Spanish and translated independently by the Guardian, states that the women have all been refused bond despite having their claims for protection positively assessed during credible-fear interviews and some of their children being offered release.

“You should know that this is just the beginning and we will not stop [the hunger strike] until we achieve our goals. This strike will continue until each of us is freed,” the letter states.

Many of the women who signed the letter are understood to be asylum seekers from Central America, mostly from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

The US immigration and customs enforcement (Ice) said it was unaware of any women partaking in a strike, but the agency said in a statement to the Guardian that it “fully respects the rights of all people to voice their opinion without interference, and all detainees, including those in family residential facilities such as Karnes, are permitted to do so”.

Ice are understood to be investigating claims that women in the centre have been encouraged by a visitor from a nonprofit group to take part in the hunger strike.

Cristina Parker, immigration projects coordinator at advocacy group Grassroots Leadership in Austin, Texas, dismissed any claims the women had been encouraged to strike by legal representatives.

Parker visited the centre in September 2014 and said a number of women she interviewed expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of care provided to them and their children and had already been discussing the prospect of a hunger strike.

“This is something that has been rippling through the centre almost since it opened,” Parker told the Guardian. “I don’t believe at all that they were coached into doing this.”

Parker added that contacts with knowledge of events had told her that detention centre managers had begun withdrawing access to facilities, including internet and telephone calls for all those detained at Karnes, regardless of their participation in the reported hunger strike. The centre has a 532-bed capacity.

Parker stated that two women identified as leaders of the group of women had been moved to isolated rooms in the centre.

The centre, which is operated by the private corrections company GEO group and which opened in August 2014, has been at the centre of a number of scandals, with numerous women alleging they were sexually assaulted by guards. The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general found no evidence to substantiate the allegations in a report published in February.

The letter states that some of the women and their children have been detained in the centre for 10 months.

“The condition, in which our children find themselves, are not good. Our children are not eating well and every day they are losing weight. Their health is deteriorating. We know that any mother would do what we are doing for their children,” the letter states.

•This story was amended on 2 April to correct that Cristina Parker works for Grassroots Leadership