Mumps, Chicken Pox Put Aurora ICE Prisoners On Quarantine

AURORA, CO – Aurora Congressman Jason Crow (D) said Friday that medical "alarm bells" were sounding at the privately run detention center for detained immigrants in ICE custody after the agency said a second medical outbreak had caused ICE to keep 261 detainees in quarantine.

The new 6th-District Congressman Crow was turned away earlier this week after announcing he wanted to confirm an outbreak of varicella (chicken pox) at the facility. Now the agency said two cases of mumps had been discovered among detainees in barrack bedrooms with around 60 people.

"Mumps is highly contagious, easily contracted by nearby people and difficult to detect until symptoms appear," an email from ICE Spokeswoman Alethea Smock said. "ICE and the medical professionals employed by GEO took the necessary steps to quickly isolate the exposed detainees, provide proper medical care and prevent further spread of the disease."

Crow said Friday he was responding to "disturbing reports" about the detention center. "We have been left in the dark and without answers," he said in a statement.

The GEO Facility is near Peoria Street and 30th Avenue in Aurora.

Crow and staffers asked for an impromptu tour of the facility on Feb. 20 and were told that was impossible. Crow said in a public letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen that the Geo-owned facility had been recently expanded the facility's annex increasing the capacity of the building to allow for 432 more detainee beds, and increasing the capacity of detainees held by "an increase of nearly 40 percent." The facility can now detain 1,532 prisoners. Meanwhile, the facility had not expanded the medical care and had not "coordinat[ed] with local agencies" which Crow and other immigrants rights groups worried could "pose risks to detainees and first responders."

ICE has responded that detainees receive a complete medical, dental and mental health screening within 12 hours of arrival, and they have access to medical care costing $250 million throughout the system.

"The agency is committed to ensuring that those in our custody reside in safe, secure, and humane environments," Smock said in a statement.

Crow and the agency exchanged press statements Friday with Crow's office saying in a press release that Crow would continue to move forward with touring the facility.

“I will continue to ask questions and hold ICE accountable for what is happening in the facility," he wrote in a statement. "I look forward to hearing from the Department of Homeland Security soon regarding my letter and any further delay only rings more alarm bells.”

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