A wave of hunger strikes brings energy to the immigrants’ rights movement

Marcial Morales is no stranger to skipping meals. In Guatemala, he and his nine siblings would often go days without food to eat. In 1997, at only 15 years old, Morales journeyed alone to the United States to meet his father, who had left a year earlier to achieve the American dream.

In 2020, Morales, a father of three, began to skip meals again, this time voluntarily as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainee. During his time at Essex County Jail and Bergen County Jail in New Jersey, Morales led multiple hunger strikes. His final strike resulted in his release.

“I am going to get out of here either alive or in a body bag,” Morales, 37, said reflecting on his thought process during his final strike.

“The system is so broken and there is no way you can fight this legally,” Morales said. “[A hunger strike] is the only way I knew I was going to get heard.”

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been a slew of hunger strikes across New Jersey conducted by undocumented individuals.

ICE detainees have been at the forefront of this emerging trend among immigrants, having organized multiple strikes in Bergen County, Hudson County and Essex County jails. They’ve waged hunger strikes for a variety of reasons, ranging from a lack of medical care, maltreatment from prison guards, unnecessary isolation and poor living conditions. Some go on strike for their release.

“The people who come to Hudson County, or to most jails, are in complete isolation. We have to spend nearly 23.5 hours a day closed in a cell, a small cell,” said Brain Vergara at an April 19 online panel hosted by the Abolish ICE NY-NJ coalition, a group of organizations working towards the elimination of immigration detention in New York and New Jersey.

“People start to have serious psychological problems,” said Vergara, a former hunger striker who led roughly 145 detainees in a strike at the Hudson County jail.

The top complaint received from people in immigration detention across the nation is medical neglect or abuse, according to the organization Freedom for Immigrants.

Vergara said he had once witnessed a fellow detainee with epilepsy have a seizure. While he was convulsing, guards handcuffed his arms and legs and left him on the floor, said Vergara.

Morales, who is diabetic, said that there were times when the guards would not provide him with the insulin he needed.

At the heart of most of these hunger strikes are concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the panel, Vergara shared that it would often take more than seven days for someone who is sick to get medical care. Despite the guards being the ones with access to the outside world, there seemed to be very little precautions taken on their behalf, Vergara said.

“COVID is just so brutally devastating in prisons, and New Jersey had the highest rate of COVID deaths in prisons and jails in the country,” Jake Ephros said. Ephros is an organizer with the New Jersey Democratic Socialists of America who works closely with the Abolish ICE NY-NJ coalition.

At the onset of the pandemic in May, New Jersey prisoners were dying of COVID-19 at a higher rate than any other state. As of April 23, In New Jersey prisons, for every 10,000 prisoners there have been 2,540 positive COVID-19 cases and 53 deaths, according to the Marshall Project.

In New Jersey, COVID-19 has killed young Latino men between the ages of 18 and 49 at twice the rate of young Black men and seven times the rate of young white men, according to an analysis of confirmed deaths by WNYC and Gothamist.

This harsh impact of the pandemic on the Latino community, including undocumented Latino immigrants, has resulted in hunger strikes outside of detentions centers as well. Undocumented immigrants in New Jersey have been hunger striking for 23 days, as of April 29, for COVID-19 relief.

“All undocumented workers are deserving of support because they have been working through the pandemic and dying,” said Patricia Campos-Medina, the president of Latinas United for Political Empowerment Action. LUPE Action has been supporting the hunger strikers since the beginning of the strike and have been part of advocacy efforts to support the undocumented population throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The workers felt that they needed to elevate the urgency of doing something and the risk of doing nothing,”Campos-Medina said. “They’ve been sacrificing their bodies for a year, but nobody was paying attention. The hunger strike is a symbol of the sacrifice that they have been living for a year.”

Conversations to get undocumented workers monetary relief have taken place since the beginning of the pandemic, however the conversation was brushed aside by New Jersey officials. Campos-Medina said they were told to wait until after the presidential election.

A bill was introduced in 2020 in the state legislature that would allocate $35 million for a one-time payment to some undocumented immigrants who file income taxes. Despite receiving support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, the legislation has not advanced.

Activists were told during a meeting with representatives from Gov. Phil Murphy’s office that he was considering setting aside $40 million in federal funds for a one-time stimulus payment to the states 475,000 undocumented immigrants. This would amount to about $84 per person.

“It’s an insult,” said Campos-Medina. The amount of $40 million was proposed by advocates in May 2020 at the start of the pandemic, however, considering that there have now been two rounds of federal aid undocumented workers were ineligible for, and the pandemic has stretched over a year with its effects still rippling, it is no longer enough.

This hunger strike has been successful in not only gaining the attention of Gov. Murphy, but the nation as a whole, including some high-profile politicians.

“Undocumented workers pay taxes. They disproportionately work in essential jobs. And they’ve been cut out of any federal Covid relief,” wrote Julian Castro, the former secretary of housing and development under the Obama administration, in a tweet supporting the New Jersey hunger strikers. “New Jersey should allocate funds for relief checks to undocumented frontline workers — and they should do it immediately.”

Hunger striking is not for the faint of heart, however. This emerging protest method among the New jersey undocumented community can take a large toll on their health. While hunger pangs subside after two or three days, the body will still feel the impacts. After two weeks, hunger strikers may have difficulty standing and may suffer from severe dizziness. Around the three-week mark, neurological problems can occur, including vision loss and lack of motor skills. Beyond 45 days, there is a real risk of death, due to cardiovascular collapse, severe infection, or other complications, according to LiveScience.

Marvin Reyes Ventura, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, has been on hunger strike since March 7. Ventura has surpassed the 50-day mark on hunger strike and is currently in the hospital. Though Ventura was detained and held in New Jersey, in an attempt to end the strike, he was transferred to Krome Detention Center in Miami.

“He was not being heard. Now that he is doing this hunger strike, they are now giving him a little bit of attention,” said Haydee Reyes, Ventura’s sister, during the Abolish ICE NY-NJ panel on April 19.

“[At the prison] they treated him very badly. They are people, not animals. I think they treat animals better than people there. It is very cruel, they have stone cold hearts,” Reyes said. “It is very difficult for all of us.”

Despite the hardships that come with this form of protest, the rise of hunger strikes in New Jersey has served as an extreme catalyst for the immigrants’ rights movement.

During the pandemic, there has been an increase in immigrant justice organizing, said Ephros, a large part of which was inspired by the hunger strikers.

“The inspiration that has been drawn from these hunger strikers is huge and the energy it has given to the activist movement outside is incalculable,” said Ephros. “There has just been so much momentum and so much enthusiasm.”

Through the Abolish ICE NY-NJ coalition, activists have organized door to door canvassing in communities impacted by ICE or that are located near detention facilities, campaigns to educate the undocumented community on their rights, as well as gathering members to call and send emails to local and state officials.

While there is a long road ahead to achieve the goals the coalition has put forth, there have been victories here and there that motivate activist and hunger strikers to continue their fight.

A number of detainees have been released after taking part in hunger strikes, as Morales and Vergara were. Inside detention centers some strikers have been able to end unnecessary isolation and improve access to supplies such as soap during the pandemic.

In New Jersey, a bill has been introduced to ban future ICE contracts, such as those currently in place in Hudson and Bergen County.

On April 29, Essex County officials announced that they are terminating their contract with ICE. The prison, which currently holds 165 detainees, will have 120 days to remove and transfer them to another facility.

“It is one step forward,” said Morales, who was detained at Essex County Jail. “That place is corrupted, it should be closed.”

Though he had hoped to see detainees released rather than transferred, Morales was happy to hear the news.

Even after he was released, Morales has continued to fight for his fellow hunger strikers who are still detained. He looks forward to the day he can see them hug their families as he did when he left the jail.

“That is my biggest hope, to see those families together again,” Morales said.