A federal investigation into the deaths of two immigrants who died in federal custody found that the U.S. immigration agency does not effectively monitor its detention facilities' compliance with its own detention standards.

"In the next eight years, we simply cannot allow our policy toward international law and human rights be subsumed entirely under the War on Terror," Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh told a room full of human rights advocates last month.

"Immigration law is extremely complicated. The two most complicated areas of federal law are immigration law and habeas corpus law, even though the representation of individuals caught up in these systems of law is very inadequate," Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals said.

As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement responds to media reports and Congressional testimony about poor medical care in its detention facilities, its representatives have been selective about what parts of the agency's medical coverage they discuss.

Congressman David Price, chair of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, yesterday told Congress that comprehensive immigration reform should be the top national security priority for the next presidential administration. The harsh enforcement-only methods of the Bush administration, he said, are not working.

The bill provides an opportunity for the U.S. Congress to address the shameful state of the U.S. immigrant detention system and stop the human rights violations that have been revealed by the press in recent weeks.

The National Immigrant Justice Center has represented immigrants in federal immigration detention facilities for more than a decade. Often, ensuring that our detained clients have a fair day in court means also fighting to ensure they have access to basic health care.

Members of a church in Postville, Iowa, talk about how last week's immigration raid has affected their community.

Lawyers continue to fight for access to detainees, and community groups are raising money to support the affected families.

Detainees from yesterday's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at a meat processing plant in Iowa are being held at a cattle ground.

U.S. Immigration and Customs has said that number may rise as the raid at a meatpacking plant continues.

The Washington Post this week is publishing a series of explosive investigative articles highlighting the systematic failure of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to provide the staffing and resources needed to properly care for immigrants in its custody.