HACKENSACK, N.J. At least eight immigrants being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Bergen County Jail in New Jersey are participating in a hunger strike to protest conditions at the facility and demand to be released.

Local activists say the hunger strike is in its 18th day. ICE would not comment on how long the immigrants have stopped eating.

Family members and activists who have spoken to detainees say conditions inside the facility are dire.

Gabriela Pucha, a 24-year-old New Jersey resident who was among more than a dozen protesters gathered outside the jail on a cold and cloudy Tuesday, said she has been in touch with two current detainees who described having the heat turned off, unsanitary conditions and being denied medical attention.

Were here in support of the hunger strikers, said Pucha, who wore a gray raincoat and held a sign that read detention is torture.

An ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations spokesperson from the Newark field office told HuffPost that accusations of unsanitary conditions are false, but offered no additional details.

Cars that drove by honked their horns in support of the protesters and detainees. One police officer watched the protesters from his vehicle and rarely engaged with them. The wind blew harder on this wintry December day as the temperature dropped to the low 40s, but the protesters remained undeterred.

This is the second hunger strike at Bergen County Jail since the beginning of November, when detainee Marcial Morales Garcia began refusing meals after he was initially denied release despite serious medical conditions that put him at high risk for COVID-19. He was later released. Several detainees currently being held at the facility have preexisting conditions and also fear a coronavirus outbreak.

Garcia, who spoke a protest on Friday, told demonstrators he lacked drinkable water and had to drink toilet water instead, according to a press release from the Abolish ICE NY-NJ coalition. He also described a rat infestation and mold on the walls.