Already at the center of sexual assault allegations, the Karnes County detention facility is also being criticized for its failure to deliver services to immigrant detainees.

The immigration clinic at the Texas School of Law asked federal immigration officials in a Sept. 25 letter to investigate complaints from detainees about services. The complaints include children not have access to a variety of nutritious snacks between meals, messages from attorneys not reaching their clients in a timely manner, and while there is a nurse on staff there is no doctor to handle medical problems such as respiratory infections and chronic illness. The facility is being used currently by over 500 women and children.  

The facility is run by a private prison contractor, Geo Group, which told Fox they refute these allegations and insist that ICE personnel at the site are there to ensure compliance with the agency's family residential standards.

These complaints join allegations of sexual assault at the center made by the Mexcian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

In a letter on Sept. 30, MALDEF told Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson to investigate "serious allegations of substantial, ongoing sexual abuse in Karnes County," Texas by private prison contractor employees. The facility is used by the Department of Homeland Security to house women and children immigrant detainees. Many of the women detained at the facility are escaping violence and sexual assault in their home countries in Central America.

MALDEF staff attorney Marisa Bono told Latin Post they had been monitoring the detention center and in contact with pro bono lawyers handling immigration papers for detainees when stories started surfacing of strange things going on at the center.

Texas State Senator Leticia Van de Putte joined with La Union Del Pueblo Entero and Rio Grande nonprofits to condemn the sexual assault allegations and called for swift action on Monday.

"If these allegations of sexual assault are true, it is abhorrent. There is no excuse for sexual assault. A full and thorough investigation by the federal government is warranted, and those who have caused these immigrant women and children harm must be held accountable," said Van de Putte, who is running for lieutenant governor in the November's election.

"Texans won't stand idly by, while mothers -- here legally or not -- are assaulted. Women and children who fled horrific violence in Central America should not have to face more suffering here in Texas. ... Those who use extreme rhetoric about immigrants fleeing violence in their home countries should pause and ponder whether their words are inciting such mistreatment of women."

Van de Putte's condemnation is in response to the allegations of numerous women who have said harassment and sexual assault has been going on at the facility since it opened in August. The allegations include "Karnes Center personnel removing female detainees from their cells late in the evening and during early morning hours for purposes of engaging in sexual acts in various parts of the facility; personnel calling detainees, 'novias' or 'girlfriends' and requesting sexual favors in exchange for money, promises of assistance with their pending immigration cases, and shelter when and if the women are released; and Karnes Center guards kissing, fondling and/or groping female detainees in front of other detainees and children."

ICE spokeswoman Adelina Pruneda told Reuters the agency had a zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse and assault. "Individuals in our custody are housed and treated in a safe, secure and humane manner," she said.

If the allegations are confirmed, personnel at Karnes will be in violation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act.

"PREA is a federal law that was enacted to prevent rape and sexual assault in prisons. It creates a zero tolerance policy for facilities like Karnes and other immigration detention centers, and it very explicitly makes any sexual contact between personnel like guards and detainees illegal. Because if you are a prisoner you can't really give consent because you are in a very vulnerable situation and you're facing, in this case, guards and personnel who are abusing their power and abusing their authority over you. And this applies especially in this context, because these women are fleeing horrific violence, including sexual violence and extortion in their home countries, and so they are especially vulnerable to that type of abuse and manipulation," Bono said.

A coalition of 15 Texas-based civil and immigration rights organizations wrote to the former head of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, in 2011 to end the contract to build the Karnes Center. The center opened in August 2014.

Bono said, "The [Obama] administration only recently went back to detaining families. Previously they were released on bail, or parole when they were eligible, and it is very disturbing to see children in very restrictive, penal-like settings."