US news | The Guardian
· collected 2026-09-05 · by José Olivares in New York
Federal immigration officials quietly received permission from a judge in recent weeks to force-feed a detained Cuban hunger striker inside a Texas detention center, including with the use of a rare, nonconsensual surgical procedure, court records reveal.
asserted
records → receive → procedure
The man is likely the 19th hunger striker in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention where the agency has had an application approved to conduct “involuntary medical procedures” since January 2025.
asserted
agency → have → January
The rising number of cases under the second Trump administration has alarmed advocates amid wide-ranging accusations of mistreatment inside facilities nationwide.
asserted
number → rise → facilities
Court orders from the southern district of Texas federal court seen by the Guardian suggest ICE followed through with force-feeding via a nasal tube on the Cuban man in August, since agency officials successfully requested this week that the court order be extended.
asserted
order → see → August
He is currently detained at the Montgomery ICE processing center, a privately-run detention facility near Houston.
asserted
He → detain → Houston
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of ICE, said on Thursday evening the man had “resumed eating and drinking again” and was not being force-fed.
asserted
man → say → evening
The DHS did not answer whether the man had broken his hunger strike this week after the latest court order, or how many times he had been force-fed prior.
asserted
he → answer → order
The new order had given ICE permission to operate on him to fit a surgical feeding tube without his consent.
asserted
order → give → consent
The Guardian is not naming the man because efforts to contact him have been unsuccessful.
asserted
efforts → name → him
Like in all force-feeding cases, the majority of his court records are sealed, concealing many details from the public.
asserted
majority → seal → public
The secretive practice of force-feeding inside detention centers has been widely condemned by human rights organizations as torture.
asserted
practice → condemn → torture
During a prolonged hunger strike, ICE will request permission from a federal judge to conduct force-feeding, forced hydration and other measures.
asserted
ICE → request → feeding
Typically, after a judge approves the request, detention center guards hold down a hunger striker while medical staff forcibly insert a tube through the person’s nose and down their throat, and pump nutritional liquid into their stomach.
But in this latest case in Texas, ICE also received permission to force-feed the Cuban hunger striker through a “percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy” tube insertion.
asserted
ICE → approve → insertion
This is a surgery in which medical staff make an incision in a person’s abdomen, insert a tube that remains in place indefinitely until it is surgically removed again and pump liquid directly into the stomach.
asserted
it → make → stomach
This procedure has not been previously identified in other force-feeding cases reviewed by the Guardian.
asserted
procedure → identify → Guardian
“The cruelty of the extreme tactics at ICE’s disposal to end lawful protest, including forcibly cutting into a protester’s body to insert a tube in their stomach, underscores the horrors happening outside our view in ICE detention centers,” said Savannah Kumar, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas.
asserted
Kumar → end → Texas
“ICE’s brutal use of involuntary medical procedures on hunger strikers demonstrates how degrading conditions have gotten in these hidden places, which is often exactly what hunger strikers are protesting in the first place.”
asserted
strikers → demonstrate → place
Last month, the Guardian published a series of stories about the extent of ICE’s force-feeding practices under the second Trump administration, with the agency getting the green light to perform involuntary medical procedures in 18 hunger strike cases – and the latest being the 19th.
asserted
latest → publish → cases
“The high number of verified court orders since January 2025 raises serious concern,” said Eunice Cho, an immigrant and civil rights attorney who has extensively documented forced treatment on hunger strikers in ICE detention.
asserted
who → verify → detention
Cho added that the high number “suggests several possibilities, none of which are positive”, including that conditions are so bad that more people are hunger striking in protest, and that officials “are more frequently failing to attempt to resolve the issue in a less confrontational and dangerous manner, instead resorting to forced medical intervention”.
uncertain
officials → add → intervention
The Cuban man was arrested by ICE on 22 July and was declared a hunger striker three days later, court records show.
asserted
records → arrest → July
The Montgomery facilityholding him is run by the private prison company GEO Group.
asserted
facilityholding → run → company
A GEO Group spokesperson referred all questions to ICE.
asserted
spokesperson → refer → ICE
The US attorney’s office in the southern district of Texas, which is representing ICE in the latest court proceedings, did not respond to a request for comment.
asserted
which → represent → comment
An ICE official and a doctor at the facility requested permission to force-feed the Cuban hunger striker in August, filings show.
asserted
filings → request → August
On 19 August, federal judge Andrew Hanen gave permission for ICE to force-feed the hunger striker.
asserted
ICE → give → striker
And on 1 September, ICE requested the judge extend his order.
asserted
judge → request → order
This Wednesday, Hanen extended the order, which is set to expire in mid-September.
asserted
which → extend → September
It includes the option for ICE touse the surgical tube insertion.
asserted
ICE → include → insertion
Like in many cases reviewed by the Guardian, the Cuban hunger striker does not have any current legal representation.
asserted
striker → review → representation
“The fact that this person lacks legal representation in a process where the government seeks to subject him to an invasive, involuntary medical procedure performed without consent is a tragedy, and a clear failure of our justice system,” Cho said.
asserted
Cho → lack → system
“The secretive nature of these cases, and the opacity of the legal process by which the government brings these motions, should concern us all.”
asserted
government → bring → us
According to a DHS spokesperson, the Cuban hunger striker entered the US unlawfully in 1980 and was ordered deported in 2004.
uncertain
striker → accord → 2004
The DHS claims he was previously convicted of “aggravated assault with a weapon, aggravated battery, drug possession, and carrying a concealed firearm”.
uncertain
he → claim → firearm
The spokesperson added that he “received due process and will remain in ICE custody until removed from the United States”.
asserted
he → add → States
The DHS also said facilities distribute proper food, hygiene, phone and other basic services, and that “during hunger strikes, ICE continues to provide three meals a day, delivered to the detained alien’s room”.
asserted
ICE → say → room
The Trump administration had previously refused to acknowledge the force-feeding of hunger strikers in ICE detention, until later into the Guardian’s investigation confirming the practice.
asserted
administration → refuse → practice
