Luis Sandoval, a 48-year-old man from El Salvador, died on October 23 inside the D. Ray James detention facility in Folkston, Georgia. Staff found him with a ligature around his neck in the early morning hours, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) has opened an in-custody death investigation.

His death comes as detainees at the same complex have been refusing food for nearly three weeks, protesting long detention and poor conditions. At least 12 people are still on hunger strike, according to one striker, and several have fainted. Strikers and their lawyers say they were moved into solitary confinement and warned they could be force-fed. Force-feeding means holding a person down while tubes are pushed through the nose into the stomach. Medical ethicists and human rights groups have called it torture.

The private prison company GEO Group runs the Folkston complex under a federal contract. According to the Guardian, Sandoval’s death is the 60th in ICE custody since the second Trump administration began. Researcher Austin Kocher of Relevant Research says that this year, people have died in ICE custody at a rate of roughly one every 10 days.

Families deserve answers, and people in government custody deserve to be kept safe. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE must allow a fully independent investigation into Sandoval’s death and make the findings public. ICE must not force-feed the Folkston hunger strikers and must address the conditions they are protesting. Congress should hold oversight hearings on deaths in ICE custody and on GEO Group’s management of Folkston. Keeping people alive in detention is a basic duty, no matter where someone stands on immigration.

Sign the petition to demand answers for Luis Sandoval and safety for the hunger strikers before another life is lost.