ICE detainees refusing food to protest conditions, advocates say

Ben Warren and Melissa Nann Burke, The Detroit News on Apr 23, 2026

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DETROIT — Detainees at the privately run ICE detention center in west Michigan have gone without food for several days to protest poor conditions at the facility, according to attorneys and an anti-ICE advocacy group, though an ICE spokesperson denied that a hunger strike was underway.

A majority of the men in two cell blocks at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin began refusing to eat on the evening of April 19, said Lauren Coman of No Detention Centers in Michigan, an advocacy group whose members say they spoke to several of the participants.

Detainees told the group their main concerns were “dangerous” detention conditions, poor medical care and limited opportunities for legal recourse, according to Coman.

“We demand competent doctors, better medical care—the food here is absolute garbage—and, above all, an end to the procedural delays we are suffering through inside these walls,” one detainee said in a translated statement shared by No Detention Centers in Michigan.

In an email to The News, an ICE spokesperson wrote: “There is no hunger strike at the ICE North Lake Processing Facility.”

“Any claim that there are subprime conditions at the North Lake facility in Baldwin, Michigan is false. All detainees are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries," the statement said.

The spokesperson wrote that it is "longstanding practice" to provide detainees with medical care, including dental and mental health services, medical appointments and emergency care.

Detainees protest their conditions in ICE detentions in "any way possible" but are often punished by being put in solitary confinement or in medical isolation away from others, said Jesse Franzblau, associate director of policy for the National Immigrant Justice Center, a Chicago-based non-profit that represents several people detained at North Lake.

"There's been a lot of even just basic problems at North Lake of family members trying to visit. People come in and are told, 'Oh no, you don't have the right shoes' ... and then they have to drive back hours and hours," Franzblau said.

ICE critics and detained immigrants have previously alleged overcrowding and inadequate medical care, including a lack of access to proper medication, The News reported earlier this month.

In December 2025, a 56-year-old Bulgarian immigrant, Nenko Gantchev, died of heart disease while detained at North Lake, prompting scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers.

“The ongoing hunger strike at North Lake reflects the awful history of this prison, which should never have been built in the first place; and along with strikes at Moshannon Valley and other facilities around the country, it is also a reminder that immigration detention is not safe for anyone,” Ale Rojas of No Detention Centers in Michigan said in a press release.

Around 50 people gathered outside the facility on Tuesday afternoon to demonstrate on behalf of the detainees, according to the No Detention Centers in Michigan press release.

In an appearance Thursday outside the U.S. Capitol, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, said the hunger strike occurred because the conditions at the Baldwin facility are bad. She cited the number of grievances detainees and their attorneys have submitted to the facility about food, medical neglect and other conditions.

She urged her colleagues in the Michigan delegation to visit the Baldwin facility to see for themselves.

“Shame on our country for continuing to take so many of our immigrant neighbors and treating them like animals and putting them in these cages,” Tlaib said.

“They shouldn’t have to risk their lives to demand that they are treated like human beings. We stand with them,” she said.

North Lake, which is owned and operated by GEO Group, a private company, began housing ICE detainees last June, amid the Trump administration’s push to detain and deport hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants in 2025.

Around 1,500 people are currently detained at the facility, according to the most recent statistics released by ICE.

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