It’s quite appropriate, in a way, that President Obama's speech last week was interrupted by the outraged Rep. Joe Wilson caught up on one issue - immigration. That unforgettable moment should gear Congress up for a significant immigration debate this fall.

In the aftermath of 9-11, the Department of Homeland Security often arrests immigrants without warrants, holds them in detention centers, and deports them without a fair trial. The Migration Policy Institute report released last Thursday indicated that an average of 32,000 immigrants are held in detention centers in the U.S. every night. A high percentage (58%) of these detainees do not have criminal records, which is hard to justify since mandatory detention laws largely apply to criminal aliens.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) disclosed on August 17, 2009, that 10 more detainees died in its custody between 2004 and 2007 than it had previously reported. I don't know if this classifies as a cover up, but this exact discrepancy was released to the AP in March as part of a Freedom of Information Act request.

To learn more about current detainee abuse and recommendations for change, you should watch this short documentary, "Restore Fairness", produced by Breakthrough in partnership with 26 leading organizations, featuring interviews with Members of Congress, immigration judges, civil society leaders, and ordinary families affected by harsh immigration laws.

As Breakthrough pointed out when we first met to plan the Restore Fairness campaign site - "when we deny due process and human rights to some people, we put all of our freedoms at risk."