RFK Human Rights filed a civil rights complaint in collaboration with partner institutions against New York State’s largest immigration detention facility, Buffalo Federal Detention Facility (BFDF), after staff unfairly retaliated against detained individuals who engaged in a peaceful hunger strike to protest the facility’s excessive use of solitary confinement. 

In a statement provided to Documented, Sarah Gillman, director of strategic U.S litigation at RFK Human Rights said, “ICE officials responded to this latest incident in an abusive and punitive manner because at BFDF, punitive confinement is the norm and civil confinement is the exception.”