Homeland Security officials under Trump tried to force-feed at least 10 people on a hunger strike in US immigrant detention. Three were subjected to involuntary medical procedures, while five others broke their strikes just as the treatment loomed.
Those procedures included force-feeding, intravenous forced hydration, involuntary blood draws and urine collection. DHS also asked courts for permission to let detention center guards physically restrain hunger strikers, a step that pushed the practice beyond bedside medicine and into custody enforcement.
Port Isabel and Krome
A Kurdish asylum seeker held at the Port Isabel service processing center was force-fed for nearly 8 months, beginning in May 2025 and ending only when he was deported. Another person at Port Isabel endured involuntary medical procedures for nearly 6 months between September 2025 and March 2026, and someone held at the Krome service processing center was subjected to forced medical procedures for nearly 3 months.
Those cases show how the practice moved across facilities and stretched over months rather than days. They also show the scale at the bottom end: at least 3 detainees were definitely subjected to the procedures, and 2 more were probably subjected to them at the Northwest ICE processing center and the Montgomery processing center.
Texas, Arizona and Florida
Five hunger strikers in Texas, Arizona and Florida gave up at the last minute, breaking their strikes before force-feeding began. That leaves the record split between people who were treated and people who backed down under pressure, with the full total still limited to at least 10 targeted detainees.
The practice had not been publicly acknowledged before this reporting, even though DHS appears to have started it 3 days before Trump’s 1 second term inauguration and continued after that date. Human rights groups widely consider force-feeding torture, which is why the paperwork around restraints, blood draws and hydration matters for detainees trying to hold out over conditions or legal cases. A related hunger strike report from detention abroad shows how fast these standoffs can intensify once medical intervention enters the picture.
US detention records
The next step is not a new policy announcement but the larger accounting the records do not yet give: how many detainees across all ICE facilities in 2025 and 2026 were actually force-fed or otherwise subjected to involuntary medical procedures. The known cases already reach from south Texas to Florida and Arizona, and the paper trail suggests the practice was used as a detention tool, not a one-off emergency measure.
For readers inside US detention or representing someone there, the operational point is direct: a hunger strike did not necessarily end before medical intervention started, and DHS sought court authority to use guards as part of that process. Another detention report on Craig and Lindsay Foreman shows the same pattern of prolonged deprivation turning on procedure, not publicity.
