Two cases of mumps and a case of chickenpox at Aurora’s immigration detention facility — the latest in a string of outbreaks at the center — have forced 142 detainees into isolation.
As of noon Friday, two pods at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility were affected, according to a local ICE spokesperson. The mumps cases were both in one pod, and the chickenpox in a second. All detainees have been given a measles and mumps vaccine, ICE says....
Aurora’s facility, which is operated by the private company GEO Group, recorded chickenpox outbreaks in October, January and February, along with mumps cases in March....
U.S. immigration authorities fear mumps outbreak in crowded detention facilities, Washington Post, June 15, 2019:
An outbreak of the mumps virus in the U.S. government’s crowded immigration detention facilities is adding a new strain to a system that the secretary of homeland security warned months ago had reached its “breaking point.”
Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Homeland Security agency responsible for the long-term detention and deportation of people who are in the country illegally, said Friday that they have quarantined 5,200 migrants at 39 detention facilities across the country, most after exposure to mumps.
The agency said it has confirmed 334 mumps cases since September. Mumps is considered a highly contagious but not life-threatening disease.
The quarantines, which were first reported by CNN, come as the Trump administration has struggled to manage an ongoing influx of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, where immigration authorities have apprehended nearly 600,000 people since October. ICE agents have apprehended another 34,500 people in the interior of the United States, according to official government statistics. The agency says it is currently holding about 52,560 people in detention facilities across the country, 5,000 more than it forecast in its 2019 budget....
I’ve been reporting for months about the mumps epidemic particularly among Honduran migrants, but the government has finally officially released the information. CNN is reporting that there have been 297 confirmed cases of mumps in ICE holding facilities since last September. In 39 detention facilities, “5,200 detainees in quarantine across those centers, around 4,200 are for exposure to mumps. Around 800 were exposed to chicken pox and 100 have been exposed to both.”
The question few are asking is how many were released into our communities who were not detained or quarantined in ICE facilities but were carrying mumps nonetheless? ...
