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A Kurdish filmmaker has detailed months of forced feeding at a Texas immigration detention facility, describing an ordeal he characterizes as inhumane treatment. Gabar Choli, a 40-year-old asylum seeker, was held in solitary confinement at the Port Isabel processing center operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during 2025. While engaged in a hunger strike to protest detention conditions and advocate for his release or deportation, Choli underwent repeated forced feeding sessions that he says caused severe physical and psychological damage.
According to Choli’s account, detention center staff would forcibly restrain him multiple times daily, inserting feeding tubes through his nose and administering nutritional liquids directly into his stomach. He reports experiencing injuries including nasal damage, throat pain, swollen sinuses, and esophageal damage resulting from the procedures. The filmmaker, who was eventually deported in January after nearly eight months in detention, says the experience left lasting emotional trauma. He expressed that while he attempted to conduct his protest respectfully, officials appeared determined to break his resistance.
A Guardian investigation confirmed that Choli was not the only individual subjected to forced feeding at the facility, discovering evidence of at least one other hunger striker undergoing similar treatment. Human rights organizations have widely condemned forced feeding as torture. The Trump administration has not officially acknowledged employing forced feeding in immigration detention facilities.
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Originally reported by Theguardian →
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