Several groups are suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for failing to provide documents regarding an Alabama immigrant detention center.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court Wednesday. The Adelante Alabama Worker Center, Detention Watch Network, Greater Birmingham Ministries, Immigrant Defense Project and Southerners on New Ground were named as plaintiffs; the defendants were named as the DHS and the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

According to a press release from the plaintiffs, they filed a Freedom of Information Act request in September 2016 for a memo issued by the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. The memo described "long-standing and continuing concerns" regarding the Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden, the lawsuit states.

The memo called for DHS to "cease use of the facility" unless it could implement reforms and ensure the facility met basic quality and safety standards, court records show. DHS withheld the records and said they were exempt from FOIA requests, but the plaintiffs claim the memo should be made public.

"The Etowah immigrant jail is widely known as a constitutional black hole and a warehouse for extremely prolonged detention," Adelante organizer Cesar Mata said. "It turns out that even DHS' own watchdog agrees that the facility should be shut down. As Alabamians and members of the public, we have a right to know about the systemic abuses documented at Etowah."

The Etowah County Detention Center is located inside the Etowah County Jail under a contract between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the county. According to the press release, the center has been named one of the nation's worst immigrant detention facilities by civil rights and advocacy groups. A 2016 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center said detainees were held for long periods of time while awaiting appeal or deportation, and were often forced to endure conditions of solitary confinement, being beaten, a lack of hygiene supplies, inadequate medical care, and a lack of any outdoor access.

Mary Small, policy director for Detention Watch Network, said, "Even ICE, with its long track record of letting contractor abuses slide, tried to close the facility in 2010. Given the Trump administration's plans to rapidly expand immigration detention nationwide, it's more important than ever that the public and decision-makers have access to basic oversight recommendations like these."

Read the full complaint here.