Last of Striking Immigrants Isolated

Immigration officials said Saturday they have isolated the last seven men on a hunger strike at an alien detention center here by placing them in a barracks apart from other detainees.

Robert C. Roll, agent in charge of the camp, said the seven men are being checked daily by doctors to ensure that no medical complications arise. He said that if the strikers still refuse to eat Monday, they will be fed vitamins and soft drinks. Currently, the men are only taking water.

The seven aliens are the last participants in a hunger strike that began on Memorial Day. The strikers are protesting alleged violations of their legal rights by immigration officers, as well as overcrowding and poor sanitation at the center, their attorneys said.

Roll said that the seven remaining strikers were isolated in order “to assure that they are in fact on a hunger strike” and to better monitor their medical conditions.

The strikers initially refused to move from the camp’s recreation area, Roll said, but on Thursday were placed in a barracks with other detainees.

One striker, identified as Jose Alberto Ramirez Flores, a Salvadoran, told Michelle Crawford, an attorney for some strikers, that he was beaten on the face by immigration officers Thursday. He was taken to El Centro Community Hospital for X-rays on Saturday, but the results were unknown.

Roll said that the remaining strikers include two Salvadorans, one Chinese, one Cuban, one Peruvian, one Indian and one Honduran.