Gabar Choli, a Kurdish film-maker and activist deported from the United States in January, has spoken publicly for the first time about being force-fed over an eight-month period while held at the Port Isabel federal detention center in Los Fresnos, south Texas, after his asylum application was denied. ICE medical staff repeatedly inserted a feeding tube through his nose and into his esophagus while guards restrained him, according to Choli and federal court records reviewed by the Guardian.
Kurdish detainee describes eight months of force-feeding in US immigration custody
Gabar Choli, a Kurdish film-maker and activist deported from the United States in January, has spoken publicly for the first time about being force-fed over an eight-month period while held at the Port Isabel federal detention center in Los Fresnos, south Texas, after his asylum application was denied. ICE medical staff repeatedly inserted a feeding tube through his nose and into his esophagus while guards restrained him, according to Choli and federal court records reviewed by the Guardian.
Choli arrived in Blaine, Washington, in 2022, having previously lived in Vancouver, Canada, where he worked as a film-maker and campaigned for an independent Kurdish state. He said he requested US asylum citing death threats related to his political activism in Canada and was living in Los Angeles on a work permit while his case was processed.
He was arrested at an ICE check-in on 25 February 2025, the month after Donald Trump returned to the White House, after his asylum case failed. He began a hunger strike while in detention in California and was subsequently transferred to Texas.
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security obtained an emergency court order from a federal judge in the southern district of Texas authorizing force-feeding and other involuntary medical procedures, including intravenous hydration, blood draws, and forced catheterization for urine analysis, according to court documents seen by the Guardian.
In a letter to the presiding federal judge, Rolando Olvera, Choli wrote: 'I am not suicidal. I am using hunger strike as the only available option to protest the abuse and mistreatment.' Olvera denied Choli's request for legal representation and extended the force-feeding order several times at ICE's request, according to court records.
Choli said he did not have legal representation throughout the eight-month period. Court records document injuries including swollen sinuses, damage to his esophagus, and stomach problems. Many of his court records are sealed, limiting the Guardian's ability to independently corroborate some details of his account.
A Guardian investigation published the previous week reported that the second Trump administration had used court orders in plans to subject at least 10 hunger strikers in ICE detention to involuntary medical procedures. DHS sources subsequently told the Guardian that between January 2025 and 4 August 2026, ICE obtained court orders for involuntary medical treatment for 18 hunger strikers.
The Guardian has previously reported that while some detainees are force-fed, others agree to eat when presented with a court order. In court records related to Choli and other hunger strikers, the term 'involuntary medical treatment' is used as an umbrella term that includes force-feeding by nasogastric tube.
Dr Chanelle Diaz, an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University's medical center who has reviewed cases of detained immigrants subjected to force-feeding, described the practice as 'torture' rather than medical care. Force-feeding is widely regarded as torture by international human rights groups, according to the Guardian.
- The court records related to Choli are largely sealed, limiting independent corroboration of some details in his account.
- The source does not establish the outcome of any legal challenge to the force-feeding orders.
- The source does not provide information on the immigration cases or outcomes for the other 17 individuals for whom ICE obtained court orders for involuntary medical treatment.
- The source does not specify what criteria federal judge Rolando Olvera applied when denying Choli's request for legal assistance.
- The source does not indicate whether Canadian authorities were notified of or involved in Choli's deportation proceedings.
- The source does not describe any monitoring or oversight mechanism applied to the force-feeding procedures.
- The source text supplied appears truncated; some material may be missing.
Read the original at The Guardian