Tacoma

And so on Saturday, 140 detainees at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma began their fourth day without food.

The hunger strike marks the 20th time this year that detainees have used one of their few tools of resistance to advocate for better food and medical care at the facility, advocates say. Over 1,450 people are indefinitely detained over immigration cases at the center.

“You have to be in an extraordinary distress to be willing to go that many days without meals,” said U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Ore., who arrived at the detention center unannounced Saturday alongside U.S. Rep. Emily Randall, D-Wash., to see the conditions of the facility.

The members of Congress were allowed to tour several housing units and the kitchen, but were denied access to the medical wing or medical staff. Many questions about detainees’ health and hunger concerns went unanswered or were obfuscated by officials, the lawmakers said.

The center is run by the GEO Group, a for-profit contractor that operates more than a dozen immigration detention centers across the country. It has faced allegations of inhumane conditions and mistreating the people in its care. In February, staff were sued for assault and sexual abuse in Pierce County. The contractor did not immediately respond Saturday to a request for comment about the hunger strike and lawmakers’ visit.