INS detainees in Elizabeth, New Jersey have staged two hunger strikes this month to protest conditions at their INS detention facility.

In 1995, detainees at the same INS facility held an uprising that involved breaking windows and overpowering guards. At that time, the detainees were protesting the length of their detention without hearings and physical abuse being inflicted on detainees. An INS investigation later verified many of the claims and the company running the facility lost its contract. The facility, in fact, remained closed for nearly two years.

Last month, detainees held a hunger strike to protest the excessive delays in granting parole for political asylum applicants. The hunger strikers also protested the amount of food they are being given and the amount of money they are being charged to make telephone calls.

100 inmates participated in the hunger strike, which lasted three days. During the hunger strike, all 260 detainees were confined to their dormitories and attorneys were barred from seeing their clients.

INS officials met with the hunger strikers and Mike Gilhooly, a spokesman for the INS, indicated that the striker's complaints were being taken under advisement.

As of press time, thirty detainees are staging a smaller hunger strike at the same facility. The second strike began October 19th and is focus on complaints about lengthy stays and difficulties getting released to family and friends while asylum claims are pending.

The strikes call attention to the new "credible fear" screenings at border entry points for intending asylum applicants. Immigration rights organizations argue that the INS should be more willing to release asylum applicants who pass the credible fear screenings by INS officials at the time of entry.

Hunger strikers also complained that their complaints form the first hunger strike have not been taken seriously.

The New Jersey detention facility is actually operated under contract with Nashville, Tennessee company Corrections Corporation of America. CCA is generally known for operating prisons around the country, not INS detention facilities. The INS detainees in New Jersey are not being held for criminal misconduct.

Later in this issue, we report on a successful human rights lawsuit filed by one of the New Jersey detainees against the INS in a case involving an unusual application of a 200 year old law.