Supporters of woman facing deportation go on hunger strike

HARTFORD, Conn. – Relatives and other supporters of an immigrant from Bangladesh are on a 43-hour hunger strike in Connecticut to protest her deportation.

Federal authorities have ordered Salma Sikandar to return to Bangladesh on Thursday.

Relatives and other immigrants rallied outside the federal courthouse in Hartford on Tuesday to urge federal officials to allow Sikandar to stay at her New Haven home while she tries to reopen her immigration case.

Her U.S.-born teenage son, Samir Mahmud, says the hunger strike began with seven people Tuesday afternoon.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro is calling for an emergency stay of deportation.

Sikandar came to the U.S. in 1999 and overstayed her tourist visa. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say she was ordered in 2016 to leave the country. Her appeals have been rejected.