A federal class action lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of two women allegedly detained “unlawfully and in inhumane conditions” in the holding rooms at the federal building used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in downtown Baltimore.

The lawsuit, filed by The Amica Center for Immigrant Rights and the National Immigration Project earlier this month, is on behalf of two women — one Guatemalan and one from El Salvador — who attorneys say were residing in Maryland lawfully and were detained at their routine ICE check-ins. A hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled for 12 noon today.

Problems at the holding room came to light in March when The Baltimore Banner reported people detained by ICE had been spending multiple days at the facility in a room that attorneys said is not equipped for overnight detention.

According to the lawsuit, one of the women suffered a panic attack while in the holding room. Her attorney requested that ICE allow an exam by a medical professional. But ICE “refused to do so, citing a lack of capacity for this at the Baltimore Holding Rooms,” the lawsuit states.

The other woman had been held for 36 hours at the time of the court filing, the immigration groups’ lawyers said. That woman has thyroid condition, and had not been seen by a medical professional or administered her daily prescription.

A representative from ICE could not immediately be reached for comment.

Lawyers representing both women, each of whom according to the lawsuit had been granted protection through a process known as “withholding of removal” years ago, the same protection from deportation as was given to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, are requesting they be released from ICE custody.

ICE’s “arbitrary and punitive treatment” of these women in relation to their medical needs “is just one of the ways that ICE fails to meet the basic human needs of people detained at the Baltimore Holding Rooms, for days on end,” the lawsuit alleges.

After news broke about the Baltimore holding room, Maryland’s U.S. senators have requested more answers.

The average detention time is now 1.4 days, according to the most recent reports received by the office of Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat. That’s “a notable decrease, but still more than two times longer than the 12-hour maximum under ICE standards,” his office said this month in a statement to The Banner.

Others who keep close tabs on immigrants who have been arrested say the length of the stays may now be increasing.

“We have continued hearing reports of ICE continuing to hold people at BHR for more than 12 hours. It appears the time period is beginning to increase again,” said Adina Appelbaum, program director for Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, a Baltimore-based nonprofit organization that provides legal services to ICE detainees.

Usually, ICE brings those they arrest in Maryland to its Hopkins Plaza field office downtown — a block away from CFG Arena — for processing before transferring them to a detention facility with an available bed. But increasingly, there has not been enough available bed space in long-term detention facilities.

According to the agency’s own rules, people typically should not have to spend more than 12 hours in a holding room.

But ICE officials have told local immigration attorneys that they have been granted an exemption to the 12-hour rule, according to an email reviewed by The Banner. Agency officials in March said the time restriction rule doesn’t even apply in Baltimore.

Staffers for Van Hollen and Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks toured the room in March and described “appalling” conditions. Attorneys earlier interviewed by The Banner said they received reports that people in the holding room had little to no food, lacked access to medicine, and had limited ability to receive visitors.

After their visit, the Maryland senators’ staff said they found no infirmary or medical staff on-site; no food service contract, leading to makeshift meals; and no traditional beds, leaving detainees to use emergency foil blankets and inflatable beds.

But follow-up questions submitted by the senators to ICE were not answered by the senators’ deadline of the end of April. So Van Hollen said he now plans to elevate his request by submitting written questions for the record to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

“The Trump Administration has a legal responsibility to ensure those it holds in custody are afforded safe and humane treatment. Subjecting detainees to poor conditions as they have in the Baltimore ICE field office is simply wrong and does nothing to make our country safer,” Van Hollen wrote in an email to The Banner.

Alsobrooks wrote in a separate email that she “will continue to work with Senator Van Hollen to hold this Administration accountable and keep pushing for real answers to our queries and real bipartisan solutions to immigration reform and border security.”

The senators requested a review of the 12-hour waiver allowing detainees to be kept in the facility for extended periods of time. The senators also asked if ICE has additional plans in place to alleviate overcrowding at the facility.

The concerns come on the heels of reports that ICE detention centers are at capacity amid the Trump administration’s campaign to deport the country’s largest number of undocumented immigrants in history.

A representative from ICE’s Baltimore field office has not responded to follow-up inquiries from The Banner about the holding room or the senators’ requests for additional information.

Robert Koulish, director of the undergraduate law program at the University of Maryland, said Van Hollen’s efforts have been extremely effective despite his inability to see conditions improve at the Baltimore facility or even get answers to his questions.

“Van Hollen’s actions should be seen in the context of social mobilization against Trump, in which case, the trip should be touted as a success,” he said. “Such acts are meant to shine a light on Trump’s shortcomings, instead of producing policy, at least in the short term.”

This story will be updated.