Hamad Sayad, a 29-year-old Yemeni man, crossed oceans to escape persecution. He thought he was coming to a country that would hear his plea for asylum and grant him refuge. Instead, he found himself locked in a cell, and was later placed in solitary confinement with no explanation after a detention officer confiscated his prayer rug and his Qur’an.
Mr. Sayad started a hunger strike to protest his living conditions and the infringement of his right to practice his faith, going nearly two months without food. When the government obtained a court order to force feed him via feeding tube, he finally relented after being shown graphic videos of the operation and being informed he would not receive any medication to reduce the pain. So he began trying to eat again, beginning with liquid foods like chicken broth and warm milk.
In a new lawsuit filed by Salahi PC and the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) on June 3, 2025, Mr. Sayad alleges that officials at La Palma Correctional Center—formerly an ICE detention facility operated by CoreCivic—pressured him to start taking solid foods before his body was able to digest them, just days after his two month hunger strike ended.
Even though Mr. Sayad was already accepting liquid and pureed foods, officials allegedly subjected him to a dangerous, excruciating force-feeding procedure that went horribly wrong. After five failed attempts, officials aborted the operation when he began to bleed profusely and after believing they had caused him to suffer a stroke.
Mr. Sayad’s lawsuit proceeds against the federal government under the Federal Tort Claims Act, including on counts for negligence, false imprisonment, battery, medical battery, abuse of process, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The lawsuit seeks accountability for the physical injuries and emotional trauma caused by the government’s alleged misconduct.
“This case is about holding the federal government accountable for abandoning its legal and moral obligations to someone in its custody,” said Nicole Cabañez, an attorney at Salahi PC working on the case. “Mr. Sayad did not need to suffer like this. The government had a duty to protect him and instead subjected him to trauma that he lives with every day.”