A group of immigrant women who had been held at various government-controlled family detention centers complained to the Department of Homeland Security recently stating that   they and their children had received below par medical care at the facilities.

“These 10 complaints are representative of the regular failures of DHS to provide adequate medical care for mothers and children in family detention facilities, and they add to the already ample evidence demonstrating why family detention must end,” the immigration attorneys’ groups representing the women said in a statement.

The groups requested the D H S to “conduct a prompt and thorough investigation into these examples immediately and to take swift action to fully investigate the systemic problems.”

Immigrant family detention was being steadily expanded by the government administration ever since last summer’s increase of illegal immigration on the southern border, mainly from Central America. The number of family detention facilities had expanded from one 95-bed family detention center in Pennsylvania to three, the larger two in Texas, and by the year’s end there were a total of 3,700 beds.

The women stated in their complaints to DHS that they and their children were denied medical care and mistreated, and many had to endure medical errors.