The protest at El Valle, run by the private contractor Management & Training Corporation under a contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is the third US migrant detention center to see a hunger strike this month. Relatives said the detainees are demanding that their rights be respected; many have been held at the facility for more than six months.
Participants complain of prolonged detention, a lack of medical care and threats from staff, the outlet Vot Tak reported.
The husband of Inna Yeremeyeva, a Russian woman taking part in the strike, told Vot Tak that staff at the center make racist remarks. According to him, management tells the strikers that there is only one way out of detention — deportation. The man said participants are not offered food, water has to be begged for, and medical personnel do not monitor their condition. His wife has found a growth on her body but cannot obtain an examination, he said. Yeremeyeva was detained during an ICE raid in November 2025 while working as a long-haul truck driver.
An official ICE report reviewed by The Insider found that an inspection at El Valle on September 10-12, 2024, identified two violations of the rules for handling hunger strikers: some staff had not completed mandatory annual training, and detainees' personal files lacked notes confirming the end of a hunger strike. Inspectors also found shortcomings in documenting patients' consent to take psychotropic drugs and in staff training on suicide prevention. The latter violation was classified as a priority because of the risk to detainees' safety.
Under ICE standards, a person who has not eaten for 72 hours must be referred for a medical examination. Staff are required to monitor the condition of hunger strikers, track vital signs and keep records, as well as provide detainees with water and regularly offer food. An inspection in March 2025 found three more violations of detention standards, concerning the recording of personal belongings, supervision of detainees and the organization of leisure activities. Inspectors described the case of a detainee who needed surgery from a maxillofacial surgeon, but the center's medical service could not find a specialist because of previously unpaid services.
The protests began in early October at the Winn immigration center in Louisiana and the D. Ray James center in Georgia, where about 500 people are taking part in the hunger strike, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting. Russians at D. Ray James complained of poor food, communication problems and being unable to see a doctor for acute pain. According to the outlet Agentstvo, one of the organizers of the hunger strike in Georgia, Russian national Idris Makhmudov, was deported from the United States on October 11, and about 40 protest participants were sent to disciplinary cells.
All three centers are run by private companies under contracts with ICE: El Valle by Management & Training Corporation, Winn by LaSalle Corrections and D. Ray James by GEO Group. According to The Insider, 127 Russian citizens were deported from the United States in 2025.