About 150 detainees at the US Northwest Detention Centre refused to eat as a hunger strike entered its fourth day, a federal immigration spokesman said.
Immigration detainees began the strike Friday. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said any detainee who does not eat for 72 hours will be referred for medical evaluation and possible treatment. An ICE spokesman didn't immediately answer questions yesterday morning.
Activists say the detainees are seeking better food and treatment as well as better pay for detention centre jobs. At one point, about 750 of the Washington state centre's nearly 1,300 detainees refused to eat.
Activist Maru Mora-Villalpando said she and others have received reports from detainees that they are being intimidated for participating. She says demonstrators are rallying outside the facility.
On Sunday, immigration officials said a lockdown announced earlier in the day had been lifted. They said that the measure affected areas holding violent offenders as a precaution amid the continuing strike.
The lockdown of Level 1 offenders, those with violent criminal histories, meant supervision was more intensive and certain privileges were restricted, such as access to phone calls, ICE said. The agency said they still had "controlled access" to medical and hygiene facilities.
Immigrant-rights activists say a group of more than 20 detainees had been segregated in a small room. They believe it's retaliation for leading the hunger strike that started Friday.
Attorney Sandy Restrepo said the wife of a detainee talked briefly with her husband on Sunday. That detainee said he and others were confined to one cell without bathroom breaks and couldn't move around. An ICE spokesman said he couldn't immediately comment on those reports.
