Location: North Lake ICE Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan
Date: Hunger strike began April 20, 2026
Baldwin, MI–An estimated 200 immigrant detainees at North Lake ICE Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan announce a hunger strike and work stoppage in response to a variety of conditions of confinement and in protest of their continuing detention.
On Wednesday, April 22, 2026, the group No Detention Centers Michigan released the following press release (also here):
For Immediate Release: Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026
Contact: No Detention Centers in Michigan, info@nodetentioncentersmi.org
Baldwin, MI — After declining food for two full days in protest against medical neglect, unsafe conditions, and legal delays often resulting in extended confinement, immigrants imprisoned at the GEO Group’s North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin confirmed on Wednesday that many were continuing their hunger strike.
“Today marks the third day without food,” said one participant in a translated statement on Wednesday afternoon. “As a result of our hunger strike—staged to fight against the violation of our rights—they are now also taking away our recreation time. We remain steadfast here; our unit has gone without eating for three days now, and we will continue to hold out.”
Around 50 advocates gathered on Tuesday afternoon outside the privately owned detention center, the largest facility of its kind in the Midwest, to express solidarity with the hundreds confirmed to be participating in the collective strike and to hear statements from men and women inside, who likewise expressed their support for the protest. Those detained in one unit held handmade signs to show through the windows, including one crying out ‘SOS.’
“We have no answers to our questions, and everyone here has questions,” said Ahmad Alnajdawi, an immigrant from Jordan, in a message shared on Tuesday afternoon. “I have a lot of people here who speak Arabic, and this is very hard for them. They cannot talk to the case managers; they cannot talk to ICE officers; they cannot talk to anyone. The food here is pitiful. I want the people outside to know, they’re treating us like animals. Everyone here has a family, a wife, a parent, a dad, a mom. Everyone here has people outside who care for them. We’re all humans.”
At a time of unprecedented expansion of the federal government’s detention and deportation machine—with ICE seeking to grow its detention capacity in Michigan further via the recent contested purchase of an industrial warehouse in Romulus—the collective action at North Lake also echoes reports of a similar ongoing hunger strike at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, in response to inadequate food and medical care. Like North Lake, Moshannon Valley is a privately owned GEO Group facility which had ended a contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons within the last five years, only to reopen soon after as an immigration detention center.
“The ongoing hunger strike at North Lake reflects the awful history of this prison, which should never have been built in the first place; and along with strikes at Moshannon Valley and other facilities around the country, it is also a reminder that immigration detention is not safe for anyone,” said Ale Rojas of No Detention Centers in Michigan. “This courageous collective action is a response to the dehumanization and abuse that are endemic to ICE detention, where immigrants are used as scapegoats so corporations like the GEO Group may continue to build their profits unchecked. Centering our humanity and the humanity of every person who has been kidnapped by ICE is the only way forward.”
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No Detention Centers in Michigan is a statewide coalition organizing to abolish immigration detention and migrant incarceration in Michigan and beyond.
April 21, 2026 | Photo by Erick Dia Veliz/Michigan Advance
On Tuesday, April 21, 2026, the group No Detention Centers Michigan released the following press release (also here):
PRESS RELEASE: Immigrants Launch Multi-Unit Hunger Strike at Baldwin Detention Center, Protesting Dire Conditions and Unconstitutional Captivity / nodetentioncentersmi
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, April 21st, 2026
Contact: No Detention Centers in Michigan, info@nodetentioncentersmi.org
Baldwin, MI — Citing dangerous conditions, a lack of adequate food and medical care, and cruel legal obstacles that have kept many in captivity with no end in sight, immigrants held at the GEO Group’s privately owned North Lake Processing Center announced on Monday that a majority of men imprisoned in multiple units had chosen to go without food.
“We demand competent doctors, better medical care—the food here is absolute garbage—and, above all, an end to the procedural delays we are suffering through inside these walls,” said one immigrant detained at North Lake, in a translated statement. “We are being held prisoner arbitrarily. The majority of us meet all the requirements to be released, yet judges capriciously deny us bond and the basic rights to which we are entitled. We need to get out of here and to be treated like human beings.”
The newly declared hunger strike represents both a response to the intensification of disturbing trends in immigration enforcement across the region and the country—with deaths in ICE detention now at a record high—and the continuation of a long history of unrest at this isolated Northern Michigan prison. Immigrant advocates plan to gather in Baldwin this week in support of those held against their will and their efforts to secure their freedom.
Built in 1999 as the Michigan Youth Correctional Facility, North Lake has closed and reopened four times. Its previous incarnation as an immigrant-only federal prison from 2019 to 2022 saw multiple deaths as well as six separate hunger strikes, primarily organized by Black men confined in the Restricted Housing Unit, who named similar concerns relating to medical neglect, inadequate food, and abuse from staff.
Since reopening in June 2025 as the largest ICE detention center in the Midwest, North Lake has consistently imprisoned over 1,000 people, including hundreds found by federal judges to have been unlawfully detained. In recent months, immigrants held by ICE and the GEO Group have described both an increasingly unsafe environment—with countless medical issues going unaddressed, following the death of Bulgarian national Nenko Gantchev last December—and a steep decline in the judicial approval of bonds that would allow some to pursue their immigration cases outside of detention. In mid-April, a group of over a dozen women in a separate unit filed a joint habeas corpus petition, recounting their conditions of confinement and constitutional violations. These worsening conditions have led to heightened alarm as ICE seeks to expand its presence in Michigan further with the February purchase of a warehouse in Romulus, in spite of massive community opposition.
“The prevailing feeling is one of deep discontent regarding the injustices faced in immigration courts,” another person detained at North Lake observed through a translator. “There are complaints regarding the lack of expediency in case processing, a lack of sound judgment and impartiality in judges’ rulings, the mass denial of cases, and a lack of legal aid. Immigrants are being treated as ‘blank checks’—exploited as a source of revenue for this private detention company. Please help us address the injustices currently taking place here.”
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No Detention Centers in Michigan is a statewide coalition organizing to abolish immigration detention and migrant incarceration in Michigan and beyond.
References:
Díaz Veliz, E. (2026, April 22). Protestors gather outside Baldwin facility as immigrant detainees held by ICE launch hunger strike. Michigan Advance. https://michiganadvance.com/2026/04/22/protestors-gather-outside-baldwin-facility-as-immigrant-detainees-held-by-ice-launch-hunger-strike/
No Detention Centers MI. (2026, April 22). Press release: Amid expressions of solidarity from outside and retaliation from GEO Group, hunger strike at North Lake Processing Center enters third day. No Detention Centers MI. https://nodetentioncentersmi.org/2026/04/22/press-release-amid-expressions-of-solidarity-from-outside-and-retaliation-from-geo-group-hunger-strike-at-north-lake-processing-center-enters-third-day/
No Detention Centers in Michigan. (2026, April 21). Press release: Immigrants launch multi-unit hunger strike at Baldwin detention center, protesting dire conditions and unconstitutional captivity. https://nodetentioncentersmi.org/2026/04/21/press-release-immigrants-launch-multi-unit-hunger-strike-at-baldwin-detention-center-protesting-dire-conditions-and-unconstitutional-captivity/
White, Rose. (2026, April 22). Detained immigrants launch hunger strike at Michigan ICE facility. MLive. https://www.mlive.com/news/2026/04/detained-immigrants-launch-hunger-strike-at-michigan-ice-facility.html (archived here).
Keenan-Kurgan, C. (2026, April 21). ICE detainees in Baldwin protest long stays, lack of communication. Interlochen Public Radio. https://www.interlochenpublicradio.org/2026-04-21/immigration-detainees-in-baldwin-begin-hunger-strike (archived here).
King, J. (2026, April 23). Detainee speaks out as hunger strike continues at Michigan’s largest ICE detention center. Michigan Advance. https://michiganadvance.com/2026/04/23/detainee-speaks-out-as-hunger-strike-continues-at-michigans-largest-ice-detention-center/ (archived here).
Posted: 21 April 2026. Updated 23 April 2026.
Header photo: Protestors outside the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan. April 21, 2026 | Photo by Erick Dia Veliz/Michigan Advance
