The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
October 4, 2018

Texas: Jailed Families End Hunger Strike at Karnes Detention Center
-------------------------------------------------------------------

In Texas, immigrant rights groups say that immigrant fathers and some of
their children have ended their hunger strike at the Karnes County
detention center, a for-profit immigration jail under contract with ICE.
The fathers had been previously separated from their children at the
U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance"
crackdown. Advocates say the fathers were threatened with once again
being separated from their children for striking. Demonstrators rallied
over the weekend to show support for the families inside Karnes. This is
one of the hunger strikers, speaking by phone with the Texas Refugee and
Immigrant Network during the strike.

Unnamed father: "I have been jailed for six months. I can't handle it
anymore. The children can't, either. We thank you so much, because we
feel demoralized. We have been punished for too long. We heard rumors of
the rally. GEO [Group] raised the volume of the music so that we could
not hear you chanting."

Meanwhile, in Washington state, one immigrant detainee at the Northwest
Detention Center had been on hunger strike for 43 days as of Wednesday.


.