'Disturbing': Judge poised to demand sweeping changes at immigration facility

A federal judge signaled on Tuesday he is likely to demand changes to the conditions at a Trump administration immigration detention facility in Illinois.

"The government is accused of denying detainees proper access to food, water and medical care and coercing them to sign documents they don’t understand. Without that knowledge, and without private communication with lawyers, they have unknowingly relinquished their rights and faced deportation, the lawsuit alleges," reported PBS.

The court appeared to agree.

"I think the evidence has been pretty strong that this facility is no longer just a temporary holding facility ... It has really become a prison," U.S. Senior District Judge Robert Gettleman said during a hearing, as reported by Chicago Sun-Times courts reporter Jon Seidel.

Gettleman was thoroughly unconvinced by the testimony of Trump administration officials, accusing them of being dishonest and saying, "I haven't heard one person say that they got a hot meal."

"I'm going to rule on the record that I have," he said. "And it's a disturbing record. I think everybody can admit that we don't want to treat people the way that I heard people are being treated today."

Chicago has become ground zero for the nationwide clash over immigration rights and Trump's deportation raids. Protests have been growing in the city, with a separate round of litigation and federal courts accusing the administration of using violence on peaceful protesters and defying judicial orders to stop — though an appellate court stepped in and prevented the harshest sanctions against Trump's Border Patrol chief.