Detainees at a Michigan ICE facility are on a hunger strike protesting 'dangerous' conditions and poor medical care, though ICE denies it.

Detainee testimony and 911 records show obstacles to medical care and frequent emergencies at Michigan's North Lake ICE facility.

The 250,000-square-foot property is one of about two dozen warehouses around the U.S. that the Trump administration plans to use to increase ICE detention capacity.

"We want them to put down their foot and stop these flights," one critic said, though airport officials say they have no involvement in carrier contracts.

Activists are pressuring the local airport authority to block flights out of the airport, even though legal experts say it has no authority to do so.

"What ICE does is arrest people and put them on the first train or plane out of the jurisdiction," said George B. Washington.

With few options to get their clients out of detention, immigration attorneys have turned to the federal courts for relief.

President Trump has pledged to target violent criminals through mass deportations. But ICE has arrested more immigrants without criminal convictions.

Around 400 people detained by ICE have been sent to North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, north of Grand Rapids. North Lake opened in June.

Despite impassioned pleas from relatives and Michigan lawmakers, at least half a dozen Hmong refugees were deported to Laos this week.

Many of those detained received removal orders after being convicted of crimes years ago, but were never deported because their home countries did not consider them citizens.

Protesters held up signs with the faces of people who have died in ICE custody this year outside the federal building in downtown Detroit.