The North Lake ICE Facility in Baldwin, Michigan, is facing renewed scrutiny after Michigan advocacy groups urged Congress to require an independent audit following a reported hunger strike over medical care, food, legal delays and detention conditions. The pressure campaign comes as the Department of Homeland Security disputes the allegations and says the facility is providing food, water, hygiene supplies and medical access to people in custody, according to CBS Detroit’s report on the audit request.
The dispute has quickly become a test of oversight at one of the Midwest’s largest immigration detention sites. Advocates say people detained at North Lake are using a hunger strike to call attention to urgent and routine medical care complaints, prolonged detention and deteriorating conditions. DHS says there is no hunger strike at the Baldwin facility and rejects claims that conditions are substandard.
North Lake ICE Facility Audit Demands Grow After Reported Hunger Strike
The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center are asking Congress to require health care experts to conduct an independent medical audit, make an oversight visit and send a formal inquiry to ICE. In their April 24, 2026 statement, the groups said they had heard from people detained at North Lake who described delays or denials of medical care, problems obtaining prescription medication and reports of spoiled or insufficient food; the full request is outlined in the ACLU of Michigan and MIRC call for an independent investigation.
The groups are not only asking for a review of paperwork. They want confidential interviews with detained people, access to medical records and direct congressional oversight inside the facility. Their demand is built around the argument that outside review is needed because many of the complaints involve health care, language access, food and legal delays that may be hard to verify without speaking privately to people held there.
Reports from inside the facility describe a protest that began Monday, April 20, 2026. Michigan Public reported that detainees and advocates said the hunger strike was tied to long stays, slow communication from ICE and living conditions at North Lake. That report also said the facility had around 1,400 detainees and cited ICE data showing an average stay of 49 days, while advocates and detainees said some people had been held for almost six months; the details were published in Michigan Public’s coverage of the Baldwin hunger strike claims.
What Detainees And Advocates Say Happened Inside North Lake
No Detention Centers in Michigan, a coalition that opposes immigration detention, said people in multiple units refused food to protest what they described as inadequate medical care, poor food and legal barriers that left some detainees feeling trapped with no clear release timeline. The group said the strike was announced by detained immigrants on April 20 and described it as a multi-unit action in its April 21 press release on the North Lake hunger strike.
The claims are serious, but they remain disputed. DHS told CBS Detroit that people detained at North Lake receive three meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap and toiletries. The agency also said people in ICE custody have access to medical, dental and mental health services where available, along with medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.
That disagreement is why the audit demand has become central to the story. Advocates argue the situation cannot be resolved through competing statements from outside the facility. DHS argues that its standards are being met. An independent audit would test those claims against medical files, facility practices and interviews with detained people.
Why Older North Lake ICE Facility Concerns Matter Now
The current allegations did not appear in isolation. In March 2025, GEO Group announced that it had entered into a contract with ICE for the immediate activation of the company-owned 1,800-bed North Lake facility in Baldwin. GEO said the agreement was expected to generate more than $70 million in annualized revenue during the first full year of operations, as detailed in GEO Group’s North Lake contract announcement.
By June 2025, North Lake had reopened into a political and community fight over jobs, detention expansion and oversight. Bridge Michigan reported that the facility had opened and closed multiple times since 1999, including periods as a juvenile detention center, a prison for out-of-state prisoners and a federal prison for noncitizens convicted of federal crimes before it was shuttered under the Biden administration’s move away from private prisons. That history was summarized in Bridge Michigan’s June 2025 report on the ICE detention center opening.
The facility’s legal context also changed rapidly after reopening. In March 2026, Michigan Public reported that more than 800 habeas corpus petitions had been filed in Michigan federal courts, with the vast majority coming from people detained at North Lake. The same investigation found judges granted most petitions since January 2025, requiring the government to provide bond hearings or release people within days; that continuity is documented in Michigan Public’s investigation into unlawful detention rulings.
Medical concerns also intensified after the death of Nenko Stanev Gantchev, a 56-year-old Bulgarian man who died on Dec. 15, 2025, while in ICE custody at North Lake. His family later sought a second autopsy, and ABC7 Chicago reported on emergency response records, family questions and the continuing search for answers in its January 2026 report on Gantchev’s death.
Lawmakers Link North Lake Claims To Wider Detention Expansion
The North Lake controversy is also feeding a broader fight over immigration detention expansion in Michigan. On April 23, 2026, Rep. Rashida Tlaib introduced the Ban Warehouse Detention Act, which would bar DHS and ICE from establishing, operating, expanding or converting warehouses for immigration detention. In announcing the bill, Tlaib’s office pointed to the North Lake hunger strike claims and the proposed Romulus warehouse detention site as part of a larger concern about detention conditions and capacity growth; the bill announcement is available in Tlaib’s statement on warehouse detention legislation.
For supporters of an audit, the key question is whether North Lake is a warning sign of what can happen when immigration detention expands quickly through private facilities. For DHS and ICE, the public response is that the facility is operating with basic services, meals and medical access in place. The immediate stakes are practical and urgent: whether people held at North Lake are receiving adequate care, whether legal delays are prolonging detention unnecessarily and whether Congress will step in to verify conditions directly.
Until that happens, the North Lake ICE Facility remains at the center of a contested but escalating oversight fight. Advocates say the reported hunger strike reflects dangerous conditions that require immediate intervention. Federal officials deny the core claims. The next meaningful development may come only if lawmakers, medical experts or inspectors are allowed to examine conditions inside the facility independently.
