Officials from the Federal Government would have met up on Monday with two immigrant mothers who’ve been at the forefront of a hunger strike at a family detention camp in Texas.

According to leading advocates who were closely working with the detained families officials from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office were expected to talk to the mothers about their clam that they and their children were detained at the facility’s medical clinic to punish them for the hunger protest.

According to a Refugee and Immigrant Center 3 women were removed to the medical clinic on Monday, the first day of the hunger strike. Of these 2 women were held overnight with their children, and the others were warned they could lose custody of their children if they participated in the strike.

The hunger strike has drawn attention to the rarely checked portion of the network of facilities run by the government’s Immigration agency, which is a part of the Department of Homeland Security.

More than 40 women were participating in the hunger strike. Some of the women claim to have been held for as long as 10 months; most of them have begun refusing food in order to protest the lengthy detention of their children. The women stated that they had come to the country to seek refuge and instead they were being treated as delinquents.

ICE officials are investigating the case.