Fox News host Jesse Watters said on Thursday that immigrant detainees at an ICE detention facility went on a hunger strike “because they don’t have ethnic food.”

A New Jersey detention center has made headlines in recent days due to allegedly horrific conditions, which led hundreds of detainees to go on a labor and hunger strike. Delaney Hall, a privately owned facility in Newark, triggered protests outside the facility that turned violent on Monday, with ICE agents pepper-spraying Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ). The reportedly brutal conditions, which DHS has denied, led New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill (D) to also attend the protest after she claimed she was denied access to the facility with a history of allegations of inhuman treatment.

Watters and his co-hosts discussed the controversy on Thursday’s edition of The Five, including a comment from DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin at a Wednesday cabinet meeting where he claimed that the detainees went on their hunger strike “because they want their ethnic food.” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who visited the facility, said food portions are small and “very often” contain maggots.

Watters repeated Mullin’s claim about the strike before going on to dispute reports of poor conditions, calling them “a ruse.”

He said:

They are getting more healthcare than they have ever gotten in their lives. They get around the clock mental health care, dental care, medical care, and they get three squares. Now this hunger strike, Jessica [Tarlov], because they don’t have ethnic food, what do we want? Chicken chimichangas? Chalupas? Pico de mayo– de gallo? Does the Jamaican in there for homicide, does he get jerk chicken?

It’s not EPCOT, Jessica. It’s a ICE detention facility. If an American was held on immigration charges in Mexico, would he demand pizza and French fries? No, he’d get tacos. These people are ridiculous. There’s no maggots, that was made up by lawyers who we pay for. This is a ruse by immigration lawyers that are paid for by the taxpayer so they can create a drama to bill more. Don’t you get it? They leak it to the press. They send Cory Booker out there. And it becomes a whole thing where they get paid more.

Watch above via Fox News.

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