Detention Center Locked Down; Hunger Strikers Ill

Authorities locked down an immigration detention center after more than 100 detainees became unruly over the removal of two Central American hunger strikers in need of medical attention, the Sheriff’s Department said Sunday.

The hunger strike began at the Mira Loma Detention Center on Thursday when 120 detainees refused to eat because their deportation to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala had been delayed, according to a Sheriff’s Department spokesman. The detainees wanted to return home to be with relatives in the countries ravaged by Hurricane Mitch.

When two detainees became ill Saturday, members of the Mira Loma medical staff and county paramedics entered the barracks, but other hunger strikers refused to let the medical team transport the men to a hospital, the spokesman said.

Prison officials responded by locking down the facility as extra deputies from the department’s Lancaster station and guards from California State Prison, also in Lancaster, came in to remove the ill men from the barracks.

The detainees were taken without incident to Antelope Valley Hospital, where they were treated and later returned to the Mira Loma facility. The lock-down was lifted on Saturday, the spokesman said.

Diplomatic officials from the Central American nations representing the hunger strikers said they were temporarily unable to accept the detainees because of damage caused by Hurricane Mitch, sheriff’s officials said.

The Mira Loma facility is leased to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service but run by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.