Hunger striker at Tacoma immigration jail carried out of cell, apparently unconscious

Advocates for a hunger striker in immigration detention in Tacoma say they’re worried about his medical condition.

Federal officials confirm a detainee has been taken to the hospital, but aren’t providing more details.

Amar Mergensana has refused food for nearly three months.

The asylum seeker from the Russian republic of Buryatia has been protesting his 11-month detention and possible deportation.

An inmate told Northwest Detention Center Resistance, an advocacy group, that he saw Mergensana carried out of his cell at the Northwest Detention Center Thursday.

Human rights groups have pressed the detention center, which is run by the Geo Group, to allow detainees to exercise their right to protest without retaliation, and to allow them to refuse medical treatment. According to Crosscut, ICE obtained a court order for involuntary hydration for Mergensana but it’s not clear that it was used.    

Grace Meng, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, interviewed Mergensana about his hunger strike in September.

“He was in a great deal of despair,” she said. “He said, ‘I don’t understand the asylum system at all.’ And felt like he couldn’t understand what had happened to him in this country that he had sought refuge in,” she said.

ACLU attorney Eunice Cho said they’ve had concerns about Mergensana’s treatment at the center. She said he should not have been isolated from other detainees just for going on a hunger strike.

“If a detainee is in serious medical peril because of their participation in a hunger strike, ICE should have immediately removed them from segregation, and given them the medical care that they needed,” she said. “Segregation to address hunger strikers really suggests a larger punitive motive.”

But Mergensana’s current condition remains unclear.

Tanya Roman is the regional spokesperson for ICE. In a statement Friday she said, “An ICE detainee was transported to the hospital on the evening of Nov. 15. He is currently receiving medical treatment. The medical condition he is being treated for is not a result of a hunger strike. Due to privacy concerns, I am unable to comment further.”

Meng said hunger strikes have been used by asylum seekers in detention in Tacoma and around the country. She said Mergensana presented himself at San Ysidro, a border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego, before being detained and sent to Tacoma.

“They had done it ‘the right way,’ the way President Trump now is seeking to limit asylum seekers to,” Meng said.  “And the fact that they were then immediately detained and had been detained for months while their asylum applications were pending was shocking to them.”

NWDC Resistance is holding a vigil to bring attention to Mergensana’s case on Sunday.