A group of five migrant women filed a $10 million tort claim, which could result in federal lawsuits, against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after allegedly suffering “abuse, neglect, and trauma” in a detention center.

“The filings document a widespread pattern and practice of abuses against families held in detention while seeking asylum in the United States, raising the spectre of future class action suits or others brought by individual detainees,” reads a document released Monday by the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. 

As an example, a claimant attempted to seek out medical care for her injury to the ear and the extreme pain it caused. In response, she received a cotton ball, eardrops, and a mild painkiller. The claimant remains unable to hear out of her injured ear. 

“The administration's irrational, morally bankrupt family detention policy must end,” said Andrew Free, the attorney representing the families. “Until it does, these women, and potentially thousands more women and children mistreated in family detention, will do everything in their power to hold government bureaucrats and corporate executives responsible for violating their rights.”