The New Yorker:

How immigration authorities have weaponized medical neglect to encourage self-deportations.

By Oren Peleg

On September 18, 2025, Karam stopped eating. Nearly three weeks earlier, he had been transferred to the California City ICE Detention Facility, a remote facility deep in the Mojave Desert, from Mesa Verde, another ICE detention center, in downtown Bakersfield. At Mesa Verde, Karam, who has a chronic stomach ulcer, had been receiving regular medication, was frequently kept on a liquid diet as prescribed by a doctor, and was able to see medical staff routinely. (Karam is a pseudonym, as he remains detained by ICE and fears retaliation.) Karam had even been approved to see a gastrointestinal specialist for his condition, but he was transferred before the appointment.

When Karam arrived at California City, he informed a nurse who was conducting his medical intake about his ulcer, liquid diet, and the medications he takes daily—some of them multiple times a day. Yet, during his first twenty-four hours at the facility, he received no medication, and later, when he finally began to receive anything at all, they were the wrong pills and were provided with wild infrequency.

As his health declined and his numerous requests for medication went unanswered, Karam decided to go on a hunger strike. By September 22nd, nearly a week into the strike, he was vomiting blood. The next day, he fainted, which triggered a “code blue”—a life-threatening medical emergency—that brought him to the medical clinic. There, according to Karam, he was kept for two or three hours as a health-service administrator named Ms. White took his vitals, and told him that it would be another two weeks before he could see a gastroenterologist for his condition. For the next three days, multiple staff members at California City told Karam that he would only get his medication if he ended his hunger strike.

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