The Obama administration is under growing pressure to change its policies governing the detention of thousands of migrants who came to the United States illegally.

Maybe it is a coincidence, but consider what has happened this past week:

—The American Immigration Council and the American Civil Liberties Union announced a class-action lawsuit challenging the conditions of detention in Border Patrol facilities in the Tucson, Ariz., region. Scores of detainees report being held in unsanitary and frigid cells while being denied adequate food, water, hygiene, medical attention, or access to legal counsel. The lawsuit alleges the Border Patrol's facilities violate constitutional due-process guarantees. It seeks no monetary damages, but rather court-ordered reforms, according to ACLU attorney James Lyall.

—The Center for Constitutional Rights and Detention Watch Network published a report calling for the end to so-called "guaranteed minimums" which require Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to fill all 34,000 detention beds it contracts in 15 facilities across the country. They say the requirement creates the perverse incentive to lock-up people who are not dangerous or a flight risk in privately owned facilities at a great cost to taxpayers.

—-Meanwhile, the ACLU and Obama administration officials have just a few days left to settle a lawsuit challenging the detention facilities for more than 2,000 women with children, who came here during last summer's border surge. The families are being held in detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania. A federal judge in Los Angeles issued a preliminary ruling finding that the administration is violating an 18-year-old court settlement,Flores v. Meese. The settlement requires the government to house migrant children in "the least restrictive environment" or release them to relatives. The judge gave federal officials and the ACLU time to reach an agreement on how to implement her ruling before she makes it final. -  Read More at Obama Immigrant Detention

Obama Immigrant Detention Policies Under Fire