About 30 people held at an El Paso, Texas, immigration prison have staged a sit-in calling for their release. Democracy Now! spoke by phone with a detainee named Kumar who observed the protest.

Kumar: “They are from different countries. Some mostly are from India, and a few guys from Mexico, Salvador and Guatemala. They want release from the detention center. But suddenly, a few officers, they came there, and I think so they are afraid. So they broke this protest today.”

Kumar told Democracy Now! protesters planned to go on a hunger strike but changed their mind after guards threatened to put them in solitary confinement. Officials at the El Paso Processing Center have denied the protest occurred. Some demonstrators claim they have been held more than a year pending their deportation, while others say they are still being detained even though their asylum bids have been approved. The group DreamActivist has launched a petition calling for a full review of the facility.