Due to reports of maltreatment of detainees, immigrant rights groups are still calling for the closure of family detention centers housing apprehended undocumented families. In a report by the Detention Watch Network, the Artesia Family Residential Center was highlighted for the poor living conditions of detained immigrants.

According to the DWN report, primarily written by Madhuri Grewal and Silky Shah, "hundreds" of migrant women and children are locked up in the makeshift detention facility in Artesia, New Mexico.

"These families have braved the dangerous journey to the U.S. to seek safety and protection from violence in their home countries," noted Grewal and Shah's report. "In response, our government has incarcerated them in the [Artesia detention center], a remote facility, hours away from legal counsel and social services, under physically and psychologically harmful conditions that only further compound the traumas that they have already endured."

The report alleged the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency under the Department of Homeland Security, of providing little possibility of release. At the Artesia facility, the detainment of immigrants increased more than 1,200 percent between June and August this year. According to ICE, as of Sept. 11, 506 adults and children are in custody at the Artesia facility with over approximately 140 ICE agents on assignment.

ICE commenced the detainment of immigrant women and children in late June this year but did not grant non-governmental organizations access to the facility until a month later. The DWN noted the NGOs wanted to assess and document the conditions in Artesia. More than 20 NGOs, including DWN, visited Artesia and found evidence of the federal government not meeting basic legal requirements for asylum-seekers. The location of Artesia also provided makes it difficult for detainees to access legal counsel and impaired oversight and accountability.

The cost for maintaining Artesia includes $266 per day, per person. According to attorneys, who have volunteered to work with the detainees, said the government has failed to provide relief and fair hearings. The attorneys also raised concern of the little private space for client meetings. Detainees were able to access phones by contacting an ICE agent in the facility. DWN said the detainees were allowed one or two calls per day but were subjected to abrupt time limits from "mere minutes to 20 minutes."

Grewal and Shah wrote, "Less than one week before the release of this report, DWN learned that ICE had changed the cell phone policy to emergency use only. It remains unclear how an emergency is defined; one attorney stated that it seems 'subjective and at the discretion of the ICE official asked.'"

ICE allegedly failed to provide education services to children set forth by their own guidelines. Medical and mental health care has been considered deficient. Accounts from detainees in Artesia include orders to drink more water instead of receiving medication.

"DWN calls on the Obama administration to close Artesia, stop the sudden and reckless expansion of immigration detention, and halt the deportations of refugee families arriving from Central America," the DWN report "Expose & Close" stated.

Somos Un Pueblo Unido organizer Marina Piña said immigrant families in southeastern New Mexico have faced challenges of anti-immigrant policies and the continuous attacks, some of which led by the state's politicians.

"We call on all our elected officials to immediately halt the expansion of family detention and child incarceration," Piña added. "It is never humane to jail a child because of her or his immigration status. If our government is willing to do this to the most defenseless and vulnerable among us, purely for political convenience, then what can the rest of us hope for?"

The report comes as the ICE announced plans for a new family detention center in Dilley, Texas. According to Shah, the new detention center is the White House's plan to "double-down" on inhumane and punitive responses to families entering the U.S.

"Additionally troubling is the fact that ICE will contract with the notorious Corrections Corporation of America, a company known for its human rights violations at countless facilities, including the T. Don Hutto Detention Center, which stopped holding families after news broke of the appalling treatment and conditions of children in their custody," Shah added.

"It is long past time that the Obama Administration abandon the abusive, and inhumane practice of family detention that erodes family bonds, and undermines children's wellbeing. That starts with closing Artesia, and cancelling plans for their new 2400-bed facility in Dilley," said Shah.