Federal Judge Authorises ICE To Force-Feed Cuban Detainee on Hunger Strike With Surgical Feeding Tube

A federal judge in Texas has authorised immigration officials to use a surgical feeding tube on a Cuban hunger striker without his consent.

Court orders from the Southern District of Texas show US District Judge Andrew Hanen authorised ICE to force-feed the detained man on 19 August 2026. The judge later extended the order through mid-September.

The order permits a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, or PEG, in which medical staff make an incision in the abdomen and insert a tube directly into the stomach.

DHS said the man had resumed eating and drinking and was not being force-fed. The Guardian's reporting does not establish that the surgical procedure authorised by the court has been carried out.

The Order and the Surgery It Permits

The case was brought to light by court records obtained through original reporting.

The Guardian, which reviewed the orders, reported that the man was taken into custody on 22 July 2026 and held at the Montgomery ICE Processing Center in Conroe, north of Houston, a facility operated under contract by the private prison company GEO Group.

He was declared a hunger striker three days after his detention began, according to court records.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement went to court as his condition deteriorated. Judge Hanen granted the agency authority to administer nutrition and hydration against the man's will on 19 August, and government lawyers returned at the start of September to ask for more time, which the court granted through mid-September.

What sets this order apart is the method it sanctions. Force-feeding in detention typically involves a nasogastric tube inserted through the nose and down the throat. The procedure has been described by detainees and medical experts as painful and traumatic.

A gastrostomy tube is inserted through an opening in the abdominal wall directly into the stomach. The Guardian reported that it had not previously identified judicial approval for the procedure in an ICE hunger-strike case.

A Rising Count of Involuntary Medical Orders

The Cuban man is likely the 19th hunger striker in ICE custody since January 2025 for whom the agency has secured court approval for involuntary medical procedures, according to the Guardian's review of court records.

Advocates say the pace of those applications under the second Trump administration marks a departure from earlier practice, when judges granted such orders occasionally, and detainees usually ended their strikes rather than face intubation.

Agency paperwork has already documented at least one completed case. An internal ICE record covering the first quarter of the 2026 financial year, first surfaced by the Guardian, described an unnamed patient who had been subject to force-feeding, hydration, forced urinary catheterisation or involuntary blood draws.

The same document recorded seven people still refusing food in mid-February and set aside about $169,000 for outside medical costs linked to hunger strikers during the year.

Earlier cases show how long these interventions can run. In the case of an Afghan detainee, court records reviewed by the Guardian showed a judge ordered force-feeding eight days into the strike without a hearing or input from the man himself, who was later found to be indigent and assigned legal assistance.

Dr Shauna Kincheloe, who worked at the Port Isabel facility, told the court after nearly three months of force-feeding that continued treatment remained medically necessary. Government lawyers asked for the proceedings to be dismissed in March 2026, saying the matter had been resolved.

What the Government Says and What Advocates Dispute

Federal officials maintain that the orders exist to keep people alive.

DHS said the man had resumed eating and drinking and was not being force-fed, while the latest court order remains in effect as a legal authorisation if involuntary treatment is deemed necessary.

In an earlier ICE hunger-strike case involving a facility operated by CoreCivic, the company said the safety, health, wellbeing and dignity of people in its care were priorities and that its medical staff followed established hunger-strike guidelines.

Lawyers who track these cases say the judicial check is thinner than it appears.

Eunice Cho, a senior lawyer with the ACLU's National Prison Project who has monitored ICE hunger strikes, has criticised the process as effectively a 'rubber stamp', arguing that many detained immigrants lack lawyers to challenge the government's applications.

The medical ethics are contested as well. Some human rights organisations have described the force-feeding of competent adults who refuse food as torture or otherwise prohibited ill-treatment.

Medical ethics experts have raised concerns about treating people against their wishes, while ICE's detention standards provide for involuntary medical treatment in certain circumstances when a detainee's life or health is at risk, and the required authorisation has been obtained.

The latest order is due to expire in mid-September. The public record establishes what the court has authorised, but does not establish whether the surgical procedure has been carried out.