Media Credit: Bryant Haertlein Maria, right, weeps during an American Civil Liberties Union press conference on Tuesday morning. She recalled the substandard conditions that her pregnant daughter Denia, left, and two grandchildren Angie, center, and Nixcari, not pictured, allegedly endured while being detained at the T. Don Hutto facility in Taylor.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed 10 lawsuits against several U.S. homeland security and immigration officials Tuesday on behalf of 10 immigrant children who they say are being detained illegally at the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility in Taylor, Texas.

The lawsuits are against Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and five officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The ACLU's National Legal Department in New York, the ACLU Foundation of Texas and the UT School of Law Immigration Law Clinic are working together on the lawsuits, which charge that children are being imprisoned under inhumane conditions while their parents await immigration decisions, according to a press release.

In a press conference announcing the lawsuits Tuesday, two families from Honduras and El Salvador described conditions inside the facility.

Denia, whose last name was not released as standard practice for undocumented individuals, is the mother of two girls ages 9 and 4, and was incarcerated when she was eight months pregnant. In tears, she said the conditions were not what she had expected for her daughters.

"When I almost went into labor, they took me to the hospital," Denia said, through a translator. "The doctor told me my baby was undernourished and very small, and I needed to eat better. I sent a note asking them to change my food or give me something more, but they still gave me the same thing."

Denia claimed her 9-year-old daughter did not receive proper medical attention. The detained have to submit a piece of paper stating what is wrong with the child and wait two to three days before seeing a doctor; most of the time, medicine wasn't provided unless the child was running a fever, Denia said.

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