CHICAGO — A federal magistrate said she plans to visit the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview amid a class-action lawsuit alleging inhumane conditions, granting a win to the plaintiffs who want verification that the government is abiding by court-ordered requirements to improve circumstances there.

Magistrate Laura McNally made her intentions known during a Friday afternoon hearing that followed a status report filed earlier in the day in which the government said it was in compliance or working to comply with a series of requirements ordered by a judge to make the facility livable and humane, even as the plaintiffs expressed skepticism and asked for proof.

U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman on Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order that requires government officials to provide immigration detainees with enough food, water and bed space, among other remedies.

“It has really become a prison,” Gettleman said on Tuesday. “The conditions would be found unconstitutional even in the context of prisons holding convicted felons, but these are not convicted felons. These are civil detainees.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jana Brady noted that Gettleman previously declined to grant an inspection, but McNally, who is overseeing evidence production in the case, said a visit was critical for that process.

In a joint status report regarding compliance with the temporary restraining order, government attorneys said officials have ordered bedding and mattresses for the Broadview facility while searching for a food vendor to provide three proper meals per day. Detainees had testified that they were only supplied with three small Subway ham sandwiches each day.

“In the interim, defendants are supplementing the meals provided to detainees with side items, such as fruit, chips, and cookies,” the government said in the report.

The report said officials have complied with other provisions, such as cleaning the cells twice a day and providing hygiene products, clean toilets and showers.

But in the jointly filed report, the plaintiffs said they are “doubtful” that the government is actually in compliance, noting that similar claims made by Shawn Byers, ICE deputy field office director in Chicago, were previously rebutted by detainee testimony.

Critically still at issue, according to the plaintiffs, is that immigration attorneys remain unable to reach clients at Broadview. The lawsuit accuses U.S. Department of Homeland Security of blocking attorney access and then coercing detainees into signing self-deportation forms.

They asked for an inspection of the facility in order to vet the government’s assertions.

McNally she said she would like to plan the visit for Thursday.

Brady said that DHS is still waiting for the mattresses to be delivered, adding that she didn’t want McNally’s visit to be premature.

“OK, well, what I also saw in your report is that the bedding should arrive within three to five business days, so if we do this next Thursday, it should be within three to five business days,” McNally said.

In another win for the plaintiffs, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis on Friday ordered the release of Pablo Moreno González and Felipe Agustín Zamacona, who have been in ICE custody since their arrests last month. Their attorneys had filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus, paving the way for the two men to be reunited with their families and communities.

“After bravely sharing their harrowing accounts of what it is like to be detained in Broadview, we are incredibly relieved that they no longer have to be held in inhumane conditions and can be safely returned to their families.” said lead attorney Alexa Van Brunt, director of the MacArthur Justice Center’s Illinois office, in a statement.

While still in ICE custody, Moreno González and Agustín Zamacona testified Tuesday during a daylong hearing about what they said were dirty, unsafe and overcrowded conditions at the west suburban building, which has been holding detainees for days before they are sent to a long-term detention center, even though it was not designed as an overnight facility. The pair are representing Broadview detainees as the named plaintiffs in the complaint.

“I don’t want anyone else to live through what I lived through,” said Agustín Zamacona, 47, who was arrested last month in Wheeling while delivering packages.

The complaint, filed last week, accused DHS officials of warehousing people for days in dirty cells that were so overcrowded that people couldn’t lay down to sleep at night. The suit further alleges that government officials systematically deny detainees their right to consult with lawyers.

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