The Department of Justice is petitioning a federal judge to reconsider her ruling, which ordered the immediate release of undocumented mothers and children from U.S. family detention centers.

Late last month, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ordered the release of all children, as well as mothers, who entered the U.S. illegally across the Mexican border and were subsequently being detained.

According to Gee, detaining children at the centers, after they immigrated illegally, violated standards set out in the 1997 Flores v. Meese settlement. The judge also described conditions at the centers "deplorable" in her ruling, reports the Los Angeles Times.

In response, lawyers representing the Justice Department filed a request late Thursday asking the judge not to implement her decision, since there have been recent improvements at the centers, which are being transformed into short-term processing facilities.

The Obama administration says limiting detention any further "would heighten the risk of another surge in illegal migration ... by incentivizing adults to bring children with them on their dangerous journey as a means to avoid detention and gain access to the interior of the United States," reports The Associated Press. The government also says that brief detentions no longer violate legal agreements stipulating that immigrant children not be held in secure facilities.

Immigrant advocates, on the other hand, have filed complaints and lawsuits concerning medical and legal services at the centers. Meanwhile, over 170 House Democrats have demanded that the centers be shut down.

"It's disappointing that the administration continues to push to jail women and children seeking asylum," wrote Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren in response to the government's filing.

"The writing is on the wall - family detention is unacceptable, un-American, and will end. Rather than fight the court's ruling, the right and moral response is to swiftly take the necessary steps to bring our nation's detention policy in line with the Flores settlement agreement," she wrote.