Immigrants held in the Baker County jail are victims of “systemic and ongoing medical neglect” and should be released, the American Civil Liberties Union says in a new administrative complaint against the Department of Homeland Security, ICE Health Services Corps and the Baker County Sheriff’s Office

The ACLU’s Florida chapter urges the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to recommend “immediate and permanent termination” of the government agreement that allows Baker County to operate as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.

The private medical provider at the facility is Armor Correctional Health Services, the same company removed from duties at the Duval County jail because of what Sheriff T.K. Waters considered substandard care.

“For the health and safety of those in detention at Baker, we urge ICE to immediately release all immigrants detained at Baker,” the complaint states. Immigrants detained at Baker are “at risk for suffering abusive and inhumane conditions. … The continued detention of these individuals at Baker is neither necessary nor safe and could prove fatal.”

Asked for response, Baker County Sheriff Scotty Rhoden said he could not comment due to pending litigation.

During a news conference this week, ACLU attorneys and doctors contended the jail “cannot safely or responsibly provide medical care.”

Deputy ACLU Legal Director Katie Blankenship detailed 140 complaints from people detained in Baker County. Forty of them were denied medication, Blankenship said.

Lorena Bonilla, cofounder of the Doctors for Camp Closure Florida Chapter and an ACLU medical adviser, specified the case of a 56-year-old woman detained after living for 30 years in South Florida.

Identified as Domita Gabriel, she told a corrections officer she had to take medication daily to control her blood pressure. She was hospitalized at Ed Fraser Memorial Hospital in Macclenny, then transferred to Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville after she collapsed Dec. 30 in jail due to poorly controlled hypertension.

The ACLU doctors said Gabriel received no medical follow-up in jail after her release from the hospital. Extradited almost immediately to Haiti, she died after she received no follow-up care there, they said.

The complaint is the latest salvo that ACLU Florida has fired in its continuing investigation into the immigrant detainee facility in Baker County, an operation that began in 2009 under a contract with the federal government.

About a year ago, 16 civil rights groups filed a federal complaint against Homeland Security and ICE, alleging “abhorrent conditions,” abuse, medical neglect and racial harassment.

The ACLU also filed a lawsuit in December 2022 saying that ICE and Baker County have violated detainees’ rights of free speech by denying them access to counsel.

Illegal immigrants arrested by federal or local law enforcement in Northeast Florida are housed at the jail in Macclenny during investigations and deportation procedures. The facility is one of dozens that ICE operates across the country in city and county jails. Others exist in Miami, Pompano Beach and Moore Haven.

Baker County’s center is made up of two buildings, one for detainee living quarters, the other for office and support services, ICE’s website said. The compound is surrounded by a 12-foot-tall fence topped by razor ribbon. Unarmed officers patrol the area.

The agency’s website’s states that each detention facility operates under one of several sets of ICE national detention standards, whether that facility is owned and operated by the agency, a state or local entity, or a contractor.

The website states that ICE has “a robust and multilevel oversight and compliance program” that includes on-site inspections. The last ICE inspection the agency lists on its website for Baker County’s facility was done May 5, 2022.

The inspection focused on detainee rights, security, medical care and safety. The report notes 13 “deficient components” — two issues in medical care, three for food service, five for environmental health and safety, and two for suicide prevention.

Baker County entered into a subcontract with Armor Correctional Health Services to provide medical care to people in ICE custody, as well as criminal custody, the ACLU’s most recent complaint says. Armor has a “well-documented history of failing to provide appropriate medical care at ICE detention facilities,” the complaint says.

Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters and Mayor Donna Deegan announced in July that the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has canceled its $98 million contract with Armor.

Waters said the jail will switch to a $110 million contract with NaphCare, another private medical provider.

The sheriff did not indicate the reason for the change, but police have been investigating the death of Dexter Eric Barry, 54, in November after a stay at the jail. His family contends he died because he did not get medication he needed after a heart transplant, despite insisting to police officers repeatedly that he needed it, The Tributary has reported.

Armor was awarded its initial non-competitive contract with the Sheriff’s Office in 2017, before Waters’ time in office. But the company has been sued in federal court at least 570 times since its founding in 2004, the Tributary reported.

Armor also faced criminal charges in Wisconsin claiming that Milwaukee County jail employees lied about checking on a man who died of dehydration after water to his cell was shut off, Wisconsin Public Radio reported in early 2018.