ICE detention center is a health risk to every Coloradan

The immigration detention center in Aurora has always been a dangerous place for the people the federal government incarcerates there. Now it’s a hazard to everyone.

In June, private prison company The GEO Group, which runs the detention center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, confirmed that a detainee tested positive for active tuberculosis. That implied the potential that other people in the center, including staff who interact with members of the community outside the center, could be infected.

State and local public health officials are required to investigate cases of tuberculosis, a highly contagious and potentially fatal disease that attacks the lungs. Public health officials have an obligation to quickly determine any source of TB and identify people who came into contact with an infected person to prevent its spread.

But GEO and ICE have blocked the state at every turn and offered scant information about TB inside the detention center. That puts all Coloradans at risk.

The state sued GEO and ICE after the company ignored a public health order from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which sought detailed information about people in federal custody with confirmed or suspected TB. GEO had previously disregarded a public health order from Adams County. ICE has said there are no “confirmed active” TB cases at the detention center and that the one person with TB had been treated and deported. But the agency has allowed no access to the site and has withheld crucial information. Its response amounts to “nothing to see here.”

GEO’s hostility resembles countless other forms of political punishment directed at Colorado by the Trump administration. The company previously worked with public health officials, but things are different now, as GEO itself admits. In an extraordinary and telling passage, GEO said in a court filing that “while it is true that GEO has in the past, with ICE approval, worked with public health officials in Colorado to conduct disease control investigations, the nature and scope of the requests being made now are different in kind and tone.”

Translation: “We take offense to your attitude, and our feelings are more important than prevention of a deadly disease outbreak.”

The threat of an outbreak is real. Some people who are infected with TB don’t exhibit symptoms, or the symptoms are mild, and they can unknowingly spread the disease. The World Health Organization says TB is among the world’s top 10 leading causes of death.

It’s possible that TB could have spread beyond the one confirmed case in Aurora. The Guardian, citing an unnamed ICE detainee, reported in July that at least 12 people were infected. The office of U.S. Rep. Jason Crow of Aurora learned that GEO had identified 61 people who were exposed to the person with confirmed TB and had placed them in a “precautionary cohort.” Earlier this month, Newsline reported that a 78-year-old priest who has lived in Colorado for more than two decades and is locked up at the detention center is exhibiting respiratory symptoms that could be indications of TB, according to a medical provider who reviewed his medical file and was interviewed by Newsline.

The threat of disease spread goes well beyond the facility walls. As Phil Weiser, Colorado attorney general, noted in a court filing, GEO staff at the detention center often interact with detainees and then go home to family and friends.

“This means they will interact with the public at large, including vulnerable populations such as children and people who are immunocompromised or have chronic diseases at public places like schools, healthcare facilities, and other community settings,” Weiser wrote. “If these staff go on to develop active disease, they may further spread tuberculosis.”

The antagonism of ICE and GEO toward public health authorities should be a major factor in efforts to prevent them from opening a second detention center in Colorado. GEO announced last month it plans to operate a new ICE detention center in Hudson, prompting protests by immigrant rights advocates and other Coloradans who are horrified by ICE’s lawless and cruel behavior. The agency’s disregard for public health only makes resistance to the new detention site that much more urgent.

In fanatical pursuit of President Donald Trump’s program of mass deportations, ICE has terrorized communities across the country, trampled the due process rights of innumerable residents and killed people who stood in its way. Now its reckless intransigence around the potential spread of a deadly disease threatens every Coloradan.