Hunger strike protests conditions at Georgia ICE facility

Happening now, a group of people are rallying outside of the state capitol. The group is doing a 24-hour hunger strike for immigrant detainees at the Folkston ICE Processing Center. Fox 5's Sarah Jabbour has our story. This group here behind me is doing a 24-hour hunger strike to stand in solidarity with the detainees at the Folkston ICE Processing Center. Immigrants deserve full rights! Strike! Strike! Strike! And in many ways, this hunger strike is a hunger strike for all of us, demanding full rights for all immigrants, an end to detention, an end to funding of ICE. About a dozen people are participating in a 24-hour hunger strike outside of the state capitol. Miles Wetherington, a community organizer, says they wanted to do the strike to let the immigrant detainees know that they are not alone. So we've called a 24-hour hunger strike here outside of the Capitol building to be in solidarity with them and to express kind of our sentiments of support and resistance to those who are inside. Wetherington says he feels like the ICE processing center dehumanizes people. His group is calling for the center to be shut down. An end to the folks in the ICE processing center, a complete end to it, a release of all immigrants there. He says people are not being treated fairly at the center. He says the fight to help the immigrant detainees is a fight for everyone. At the end of the day, this is a fight for all working class people. Whether or not you're documented, undocumented, born here, born somewhere else, these attacks are an attack on all working class people. Wetherington hopes the 24-hour hunger strike at least gets the attention of people that a change needs to be made. Well, the goal is really to just to continue to spread the message of what's going on behind the bars. I reached out to the Department of Homeland Security. A spokesperson says any allegations of subprime conditions at Folkston Detention Center are false. The spokesperson says, quote, all detainees are provided with proper meals, quality water, blankets, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers, end quote. And this group is planning on staying out here all night. They will be done Monday morning at 9 a.m. Reporting in Atlanta, Sarah Jabbour, Fox 5 News.