An immigrant rights group is threatening a federal lawsuit if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees are returned to a Jefferson County jail without significant improvements to the facility.

Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center made the threat in a news release Thursday.

If ICE returns the detainees to the Jefferson County Justice Center “without taking significant steps to ensure the jail complies with the U.S. Constitution and federal detention standards, it will face renewed litigation to cancel the facility’s federal immigration contract,” according to the release.

The facility is trying to regain the detainees it lost when medical staffing and paperwork issues caused ICE to pull the detainees from Jefferson County late last year.

Those problems have now been fixed, Jefferson County officials said previously, and the county is working with ICE on a new agreement to house detainees.

However, the NIJC alleges the problems at the facility go much deeper and include documented reports of tuberculosis, respiratory infections, skin funguses and other medical issues in ICE detainees that were held at the jail.

The immigrant rights group is asking ICE to meet three conditions before the detainees can be returned to Jefferson County, including an assurance that jail conditions “respect immigrant detainees’ rights as guaranteed by the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.”

The group also wants a jail inspection based on “the most recent guidelines that govern the treatment of people in ICE custody,” and a confirmation that the jail will correct any deficiencies and comply with those guidelines.

Jefferson County Sheriff Roger Mulch and board chairman Robert White could not be reached for comment but ICE spokeswoman Gail Montenegro said ICE is working closely with county officials on the issue.

“ICE has no immediate plans to move detainees to the Jefferson County correctional facility before a full inspection of the facility is conducted,” she said in an email.

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