Brooklyn Asylum Seeker Breaks 30-Day Hunger Strike in ICE Detention in Georgia

A Russian asylum seeker who lives in Brooklyn ended a monthlong hunger strike in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Georgia on Wednesday. 

Andrei Gerdiukov, who’s been in ICE detention since February, and the group of 10 strikers were demanding their releases — or in his case, at least a transfer to a facility in New York so he can be closer to his wife. 

He and the other remaining hunger strikers broke their fast Wednesday, 30 days after they stopped eating on Oct. 6, according to Polina Chertushkina, 27, Gerdiukov’s wife, who spoke with him over the phone.

“His hands and legs were shaking,” Chertushkina said Gerdiukov told her, as he took his first bites of a pastry, his first solid food in a month. Chertushkina lost more than 30 pounds over the course of the month, she said. 

Andrei Gerdiukov, 31, was among dozens of detainees at the Folkston D. Ray James ICE processing center in Georgia who launched a hunger strike last month. As the weeks dragged on, the strike dwindled to 11 participants, including Gerdiukov, who were then sent to another ICE detention center across the street. 

In recent days, the remaining participants have been threatened with being force fed, Gerdiukov told The City Reporter in a phone call from the facility earlier in the week when the fast was ongoing

“I cannot sleep at all because of hunger,” he said. 

“We’re waiting for them to start force feeding,” Gerdiukov said. “They told us every day.” 

“I can see my ribs,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

As the Trump administration has detained historic numbers of people as part of its mass deportation agenda, detainees across the country have turned to hunger strikes to protest the conditions of their confinement. The Guardian has reported on how ICE has force fed hunger strikers with the approval of federal courts. Force feeding is a practice widely condemned by human rights groups as a form of torture.

Gerdiukov has been in ICE detention since Feb. 22, when he and his wife were pulled over by Border Patrol agents during a traffic stop while they were on vacation in Florida with another Russian asylum-seeking couple. 

All four were arrested, and the men were held in ICE detention while the women were released under orders of supervision, Chertushkina said in an interview. 

In the months since, Gerdiukov has tried to win his freedom in every way he could think of. He tried to get bond in immigration court and filed a habeas corpus petition. He was denied bond and then ordered removed, a decision he’s appealing. His habeas corpus petition seeking release is still pending before a federal judge in Georgia, seven months after he filed. 

He and other detainees raised grievances about food, lack of medical care and poor conditions at the facility. He and his wife requested a transfer through formal channels, reaching out to their local Congressmember Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn), whose office also requested he be transferred on their behalf, according to correspondence shared with The City Reporter. None of it went anywhere, he said.

“We tried every legal process. Every issue we tried to solve it here, but they didn’t listen to us,” he said. “They leave us only one choice, that’s to protest, hunger strike.”

Chertushkina said that staff approached Gerdiukov this week offering to  transfer him to another facility in Georgia, but not one closer to New York. Now that the strike was over she wasn’t sure what they would do. 

“Maybe other people can forget about it,” she said. “Everything will be as it was before.”

Fleeing Putin’s Russia

The couple entered the United States seeking asylum in 2024, after fleeing Russia ahead of the landslide re-election of President Vladimir Putin. 

They were caught by Russian police distributing pamphlets in favor of the opposition and arrested, Chertushkina said in an interview, and Gerdiukov was beaten up.

When they were released and told to return the next week, they understood that to mean they would be put in prison if they didn’t get out of the country. They bought plane tickets right away. 

“We came home, and we understood, we have to leave Russia. You have another choice, or we will be in prison,” Chertushkina said.

The couple settled in Midwood, Brooklyn, applied for asylum, got work authorization and were going through deportation proceedings, immigration court records show. Gerdiukov was working as a handyman, while Chertushkina was teaching English to Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians in Southern Brooklyn, she said. They were settling into life in New York City. 

“Everybody was very kind. In New York City I feel a lot of people support immigrants, and I thought all Americans were like New Yorkers,” Gerdiukov said. “But I was wrong. Right now, I can see the difference.”

When they decided to go on vacation with their Russian friends, they thought with their asylum claims and deportation cases pending, they were not at risk of arrest by ICE or border patrol. 

“They gave me all [the] documents, I thought I was legal,” Gerdiukov said. “I brought it with me. I have nothing to hide. I’m clear.”

All four of the Russians were arrested by border patrol. The women were released on orders of supervision, which means Chertushkina cannot leave the state to visit her husband in detention. 

The two men were handed off together to ICE custody and spent a week at Alligator Alcatraz before they were sent to Folkston. Gerdiukov’s friend, Andrei Mikhailov, is also partaking in the hunger strike at Folkston, while Chertushkina and Mikhailov’s wife, Ksenia Volkova, have been advocating for their detained husbands, calling elected officials and reporters across the country.

Spokespeople for Rep. Clark, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator Chuck Schumer and Governor Kathy Hochul haven’t returned requests for comment. 

Gerdiukov has already faced retaliation for his protest, disciplinary records shared with The City Reporter show. He was cited with the “prohibited acts” of “engaging in group demonstration” and “conduct that disrupts” after staff said he helped orchestrate a video call with other detainees that was put online and published by several media outlets “to generate public and media attention.”

After the charges, Gerdiukov spent two weeks in solitary confinement, he and his wife said.

When Gerdiukov spoke to The City Reporter earlier in the week, he said he felt weak, exhausted and hungry all the time. Still, he said the separation from his wife hurts most.

“I’m trying not to think about that,” he said. “It’s the hardest part.”

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