In interviews that appear in the suit filed by the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, detainees also reported not being allowed to shower for days and sleeping in overcrowded rooms.
"A much better system would be to keep families together through their immigration proceedings," Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said. "That's what the Obama administration did in 2014."
In an effort to justify his get-tough policies at the Southern border, President Trump met Friday with victims of crime committed by immigrants who entered the country illegally.
Southwest Key has, for many years, operated shelters that house unaccompanied migrant children. The family separation policy shined a spotlight on that work — and raised uncomfortable questions.
The president ends a policy that sent thousands of children to government-run facilities away from their parents; critics say he just created new problems, and kids already held may be there a while.
The Trump administration is scrambling to find shelter space for a growing number of juveniles who have been separated from their parents under the policy of prosecuting all illegal border crossers.
Reacting to criticism from mainstream religious groups, the attorney general said the administration will continue to separate immigrant children from their parents.
During the discussion on California's "sanctuary law," the president said of immigrants suspected of gang membership, "These aren't people. These are animals."