The Region - News from May 30, 1985

At least 72 undocumented aliens continued to go without food at an Immigration and Naturalization Service detention center in El Centro on the third day of a hunger strike to protest living conditions. The strikers, who stopped eating and refused to return to their barracks Monday morning, had planned to end the strike after meeting with INS officials, but the meeting was delayed Wednesday when the strikers demanded the presence of news reporters and a neutral third party, said Shari Cruhlac, a spokeswoman for the Imperial Valley Immigration Project, a legal aid group that helps people with immigration problems. INS spokesmen were not available for comment. The strikers have been subsisting on water since 6 a.m. Monday. “Some of them feel very weak from being in the heat and not eating,” Cruhlac said.