In Pennsylvania, immigrant mothers detained with their children at the Berks County Residential Center have entered their second week of a hunger strike. They are protesting the government’s claims that the average time in detention is only 20 days. By the end of this month, at least three families will have spent a full year in custody at the Berks facility.
Organizers say as many as 26 women are currently on hunger strike. In a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, the mothers wrote, “On many occasions our children have thought about suicide because of the confinement and desperation that is caused by being here.”
