PORT ISABEL, TEXAS — Kurdish filmmaker Gabar Choli was deported in January 2026 after enduring nearly eight months of force-feeding by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a hunger strike. The 40-year-old activist had been detained since February 2025, when agents arrested him during a mandatory check-in.

Choli began his hunger strike on 24 March 2025 to demand improved conditions for detained immigrants and his release or deportation. ICE force-fed him intermittently from late May 2025 until his removal from the United States. He was held at the Desert View Annex in California before being transferred to the Port Isabel service processing center in south Texas.

Dr Chanelle Diaz, an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University’s medical center, stated that the force-feeding of Gabar Choli likely amounts to torture. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson stated that ICE respects an individual’s right to refuse medical treatment where appropriate but may seek judicial authorization for interventions when there is a serious risk of death or permanent harm.

The Department of Homeland Security stated that between January 2025 and 4 August 2026, ICE received court orders for involuntary treatment for 18 hunger strikers. This figure includes the period during which Choli was subjected to forced feeding prior to his deportation.

Choli arrived in Canada from Iran in 2007. He served nine months in prison in Canada following a 2012 drug-smuggling charge related to receiving over one kilogram of opium from Turkey. In 2022, he crossed the border into the US in Blaine, Washington, and requested asylum.

A judge denied Choli's asylum claim in 2024 but granted him protection from deportation to Iran. His subsequent arrest in 2025 led to the detention and hunger strike that preceded his removal in early 2026.

The case of Gabar Choli shows the use of involuntary medical treatment by federal immigration authorities against detainees who engage in hunger strikes. The Department of Homeland Security reported 18 such court orders for involuntary treatment in an eight-month window, indicating a pattern of judicial intervention in these protests. Medical professionals have raised concerns about the nature of these procedures, with Dr. Diaz characterizing the force-feeding as potential torture. The outcome of Choli's case also raises questions regarding the destination of deportees who have been granted protection from return to their country of origin, as Choli had been barred from deportation to Iran.

Why It Matters

The case shows a pattern of federal immigration authorities seeking judicial authorization for involuntary medical treatment, with 18 court orders issued in an eight-month window. Medical professionals have characterized such force-feeding procedures as potential torture, while the deportation of individuals granted protection from return to their country of origin tests the limits of existing legal safeguards. These actions establish precedents for how detention centers manage hunger strikes and handle detainees with specific deportation protections.