Kurdish Filmmaker Alleges ICE Force-Fed Him During Hunger Strike: 'My Spirit Was Broken'
José Olivares
Gabar Choli, a Kurdish filmmaker, speaks out about being force-fed for eight months during a hunger strike in U.S. ICE detention, calling it torture. He described physical and psychological harm, including torn nasal passages and choking on blood. This is the longest recorded force-feeding case in ICE custody.
Gabar Choli, a Kurdish filmmaker and activist now living in Canada after deportation, has spoken publicly for the first time about an eight-month hunger strike and forced feeding while in U.S. immigration detention. He described the process as causing severe physical and psychological harm.
Choli was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after his asylum application was rejected. He began a hunger strike to protest detention conditions and push for resolution of his immigration case. From late May 2025 until his deportation in January 2026, ICE officials force-fed him at the Port Isabel Federal Detention Center in Los Fresnos, southern Texas.
“It broke me, broke my spirit. To the point that I wrote a letter apologizing to my body,” Choli said in an exclusive interview with The Guardian.
He recounted that a team of guards would restrain him while ICE medical staff forcibly inserted a tube through his nose into his esophagus and pumped nutrient solution into his stomach. On several occasions, a nurse “pushed the tube too hard,” causing “tearing inside my nose,” after which he was placed in solitary confinement and “choked on blood flowing back from my throat.”
He said he maintained a respectful demeanor throughout the process: “I only told them I was protesting to demand humane treatment, nothing else. But they were determined to break me.”
A Guardian investigation last week revealed that the second Trump administration used court orders to perform forced medical procedures on at least 10 hunger strikers in ICE detention. Subsequently, sources from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that from January 2025 to August 4, 2026, ICE obtained court orders for mandatory medical treatment for 18 hunger strikers.
Court records show ICE argued that force-feeding Choli was necessary for his health, while also claiming his prolonged hunger strike posed a “serious threat to the security and order” of the detention center. They also accused him of attempting to “manipulate the immigration system.”
In a letter to the federal judge overseeing his case, Choli wrote: “I am not committing suicide. I use hunger strike as the only option to protest mistreatment.”
Choli had no lawyer during his eight months in detention. Judge Rolando Olvera of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas denied his request for legal assistance and repeatedly extended the force-feeding orders at ICE's request. Court records noted he suffered sinus, esophageal, and stomach issues.
“That is not medical care; that is torture,” said Dr. Chanelle Diaz, assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, who has reviewed cases of other immigrants who were force-fed.
In response to an inquiry, an unnamed DHS spokesperson said ICE “respects an individual's right to refuse medical treatment where appropriate.” However, when a person's condition poses “a risk of death or permanent harm” or other legal interests are affected, ICE may seek court permission to intervene medically as permitted by law. The spokesperson insisted that all forced treatment procedures are carried out “under legal authority and under the direction of qualified medical professionals.”
Choli's case is considered the longest recorded instance of force-feeding in the ICE detention system to date.
