Homan: ICE won’t release detainees on hunger strike in New Jersey
White House border official Tom Homan said the Trump administration could seek a court order to force-feed immigrants held at New Jersey’s Delaney Hall detention center if people there continue a hunger strike.He argued hunger strikes don’t change ICE policy and suggested force-feeding would occur if doctors deem detainees to be in extreme medical danger.
The hunger and work strike followed Memorial Day protests by Democratic officials who alleged detainees faced “deplorable” conditions, including inadequate food, medical care, and legal process. Homan, speaking on Fox News, defended ICE detention standards as higher than those in prisons and claimed ICE spent nearly $1 billion on healthcare during his earlier tenure.
The article also cites government data used by NPR indicating that 29 detainees died nationwide since the start of fiscal year 2026, exceeding the prior record pace. DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis rejected the hunger-strike reports as a political stunt, saying no hunger strike or substandard conditions exist at Delaney Hall.
Rep. rob Menendez visited the facility and, when asked about force-feeding, said he is concerned ICE would act “with cruelty” and pointed to detainees’ alleged lack of adequate medical attention-while Cornish noted Homan’s claim that force-feeding could be ordered by court.
White House border czar Tom Homan has warned that the Trump administration may take legal action in order to “force-feed” illegal immigrants at a New Jersey detention center who are five days into a hunger strike.
“Hunger strikes never work,” Homan told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Tuesday evening. “We’re not going to change what we do because someone goes on a hunger strike. A matter of fact, if it gets bad enough, and then physicians feel like they’re putting themselves in extreme danger, medical danger, then we’ll force-feed them. We’ll get a court order and force-feed. They can, you know, put themselves in a position where they’re, you know, not eating, but it’s not going to cause them to be released.”
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Democratic elected officials showed up outside the Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark on Memorial Day and accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement of holding hundreds of detainees in “deplorable” conditions, which led some to go on a hunger and work strike last Friday. All detainees are illegal immigrants who are in the midst of deportation proceedings in court or awaiting deportation transportation.
House and Senate Democrats alleged that the food, medical care, and legal proceedings that detainees inside Delaney Hall received were unacceptable.
Homan, the former acting ICE director during President Donald Trump’s first term, said the condition requirements for ICE facilities are higher than those in federal prisons.
“Look at ICE’s detention standards, the highest detention standards in the industry, better than any state prison, county jail, or federal lock-up,” Homan said. “We spent almost a billion dollars when I was ICE director, that was a while ago, almost a billion dollars on healthcare alone.”
Since the start of the government’s fiscal 2026 last October, 29 detainees nationwide have died. The figure is higher in roughly half a year than the previous record of 28 deaths recorded in fiscal 2004, according to government data obtained by NPR, although illegal immigrant detention levels were significantly lower that year.
Homan said deaths in ICE custody were “a fraction of any state prison or federal facility.
“We deal with people from third-world nations who are in bad shape when we get them,” Homan said.
DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis issued a statement on Monday denying reports of a hunger strike.
“This is nothing more than a political stunt by New Jersey sanctuary politicians for fundraising clicks,” Bis said in a statement. “There is NO hunger strike at Delaney Hall. There are NO subprime conditions or abuse at the facility.”
Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ) visited the site on Sunday and Monday. Menendez rejected the idea of force-feeding detainees when asked by CNN’s “This Morning with Audie Cornish” on Wednesday.
FACT CHECK: DELANEY HALL, THE ICE DETENTION CENTER IN NEW JERSEY, UNDER DEMOCRATS’ MICROSCOPE
“Do you fear what Homan is saying, that at this facility they might force-feed those who are participating in any kind of hunger strike?” Cornish asked.
“Yes, I do, because I don’t believe ICE has any limits on its cruelty,” Menendez said. “I wish they were more concerned with thinking about some of the concerns raised by the individuals in there, including a lack of access to adequate medical attention. But instead, they’re thinking about the problem on their hands, which is that people are going on a hunger strike, which has been confirmed, even by Mr. Homan.”
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