2 Indian asylum-seekers in Texas expected to be released soon

Two asylum seekers from India, who have been on a hunger strike for more than 70 days inside a federal detention facility in El Paso protesting their detention and were transferred to a long-term acute care hospital in mid-September as their health deteriorated, are expected to be released soon.

The attorneys for the two men — Gurjant Singh and Ajay Kumar — who left India over a year ago seeking a better life and “to escape persecution and threats” to their lives from political factions, said they were transferred to the El Paso LTAC facility on Sept. 16, according to news reports.

However, a week after their transfer to the acute care hospital, hopes arose about their release from federal custody while they appeal their asylum claims.

Linda Corchado, who is representing Kumar, said that Kumar signed ICE release documents on Sept. 20 and Singh signed them on Sept. 21.

El Paso Times quoted Corchado as saying that Kumar ate his first meal on Sept. 20, and that he was expected to be medically cleared for release within five to seven days.

Kumar is expected to reside with two volunteer advocates in Las Cruces, New Mexico, while he pursues his case. Singh is appealing his asylum case, denied twice now, before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Corchado said at a press conference at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center on Sept. 18 that the men are among at least three Indian nationals seeking asylum who have been subject to forced feeding in recent months while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

According to reports by Court House News Service and other media, including El Paso Times quoting the attorneys, the men have pains in their stomachs, backs and chest and their teeth are loosening and hair is falling out.

“My client is in excruciating pain,” Jessie Miles, the attorney representing Singh, said. “If he dies, it is because ICE will not release him. “They haven’t walked in weeks and use wheelchairs, the attorneys said.

The reports said quoting the lawyers that the men have lost dozens of pounds and are nearing an early death due to complications from the hunger strike and because the federal government won’t release them. The pair have spent more than a year in immigration custody and have only seen outside a detention facility in El Paso from a bed in an acute care hospital.

“I really am pleading with ICE to show some compassion here,” Margaret Brown Vega of Advocate Visitors with Immigrants in Detention, said at the news conference. “If they do not release these men soon, they will die. That is certain. That’s not the way they should be gaining their freedom — through death.”

The two men were transferred from the Otero County Processing Center to the El Paso ICE Processing Center in mid-July along with two other men from India. The other two men, who have not been identified, were deported earlier this year, according to reports quoting immigration attorneys.

The men began their hunger strike in the Southern New Mexico processing center adding to a long list of recorded complaints and strikes within the center dating between 2015 and 2018. Earlier this year, two other men from India were force-fed during a 74-day hunger strike in the El Paso facility.

ICE officials said in a statement earlier that the organization was doing their best to help those on the hunger strike.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fully respects the rights of all people to voice their opinion without interference,” officials said in the statement earlier. “ICE does not retaliate in any way against hunger strikers. ICE explains the negative health effects of not eating to our detainees. For their health and safety, ICE closely monitors the food and water intake of those detainees identified as being on a hunger strike,” the statement had said.

News reports said while in ICE’s custody in El Paso, the men were force fed through a nasal tube with approval from a federal court. Their lawyers described a scene where the asylum seekers were held down by ICE staff while the tubes were inserted into their bodies.

According to El Paso Times, a review by Parveen Parmar, a physician practicing in the Los Angeles County and University of California Emergency Department, who had reviewed 471 pages of records on Kumar and transcripts of ICE’s physician’s testimony in federal court, “the care Mr. Kumar is receiving in ICE custody is markedly below standard of care, and putting his life at risk.”

Advocates have called for authorities to release the men on bond while their immigration proceedings play out, something the government has so far declined to do. The men are still in federal custody while receiving care at the long-term clinic, their attorneys said.

Court House News Service said in the report that court documents in Kumar’s case reveal graphic details of a previous incident where a feeding tube inserted into his nose by a government doctor “coiled” before reaching his stomach, causing his nose to swell and begin bleeding. Kumar testified he “was finding it difficult to breathe” during the ordeal, according to the documents.

Still, late last week a federal judge considering Kumar’s case allowed the government to continue force feeding him if the government finds it necessary.In his decision, U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo simultaneously said he found it “troubling” that Kumar was not brought to an outside doctor for evaluation when the hunger strike began, strongly encouraging authorities to take that route before seeking a force-feeding authorization in the future.

The men have not been force fed in recent days, according to their attorneys.

At the press conference, a statement from Kumar was read out in which he described being “threatened” and “bullied” while in detention, but nevertheless called the United States “a very good country.”

Corchado said her clients, or any Indian asylum seeker in ICE custody, do not have access to religious material pertaining to their faith and Kumar had made those concerns known as far as Washington D.C. to no change. While in custody, Kumar learned that his father had died at the hands of his persecutors in India and decided that he had no other choice but to fight for his liberty.

She said it has been difficult for her client because while in custody his request for asylum was denied. But Corchado said that the immigration judge overseeing his case had made an unfair decision and she plans on appealing. “When my asylum application was denied and I was ordered to go back or deported, I was under heavy stress because it confirmed that if I go back, I will be tortured to death,”the letter from Kumar read. “I thought it was better to die here. So, I stopped eating on July 9th.”

Corchado tweeted on September 21 saying that “Ajay is not a criminal. He is peaceful. He wanted to make India a better place to live. Wanted to give the poor a voice, medical care for the sick.”

The El Paso Times quoted Corchado as saying after Kumar signed his release documents, that: “Ajay said namaste to each officer and looked at me with tears in his eyes, ‘this road was long ma’am.’”

Corchado said, “His is one voice in a broken system. There are others, like Gurjant, who still suffer for freedom.”