The standoff between the operators of a privately run immigration detention center in Aurora continues as Colorado’s governor and its health department continue to push for answers about a detainee with a confirmed case of active tuberculosis, and what’s been done to prevent its spread.
Congressman Jason Crow's office confirmed to CPR that he had not heard from GEO Group after his staff visited the facility a week and first learned of the deportation.
“State and local public health partners have not yet been granted access to the facility to perform a standard public health investigation,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement emailed late Tuesday. “We have also sent a list of questions to the facility which have not been answered.”
Last week, staffers from Congressman Jason Crow’s office visited the GEO Aurora ICE Processing Center, along with representatives from the offices of Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper.
GEO and ICE officials said at the time there were no positive TB cases at the facility, but that one person was being monitored for it.
“GEO medical staff confirmed that there was a detainee that tested positive for tuberculosis but that the detainee has been deported,” stated an account of the July 15 visit posted on Crow’s official website.
“ICE is out of control and needs to be reined in,” said Crow in an emailed statement. “When our immigration detention system is driven by corporate greed, it allows corporations like GEO Group to cut corners on medical care and safety to benefit their bottom line.”
There are 1,400 people being held in the detention center, according to the report. It’s unclear how many people work there.
GEO and ICE have provided scant information to the public about the situation inside the facility. Neither have responded to questions from CPR about details regarding the person who was deported.
Thursday, the company offered a six-word response, the same it’s been offering for days. “We would refer you to ICE,” said Christopher V. Ferreira, GEO Group’s director of corporate relations. ICE has not yet responded to CPR’s request for comment and information about the case and what steps GEO and ICE are taking to prevent the spread of TB.
The July 15 visit report said Crow’s staff were told the facility had no detainees with confirmed tuberculosis, with “one detainee in isolation as a precaution.” It said a contact investigation was conducted that included “exposure assessments, clinical evaluations, symptom screening, and diagnostic testing.”
The report said, “61 individuals were identified as having exposure to the index case and were placed in a precautionary cohort,” noting newly detained people are screened for tuberculosis, and yearly after that.
Active tuberculosis, also called TB, is a serious disease, which is spread through the air. Without treatment, it can be fatal. The disease is “one of the world's leading infectious disease killers,” according to the CDC.
Officials started asking questions after the Guardian reported last week an outbreak at the detention had sickened at least 12 people, a figure local officials have not confirmed.
The TB situation comes during a tense time at the detention center. A woman was shot Thursday night after a protest outside the facility. An employee of GEO Group, which operates the facility, was arrested and charged in connection with the shooting.
Questions from the Governor, state health department
Gov. Jared Polis gave GEO and ICE until last Friday, July 17, to respond to requests from health officials for information and access to the facility, but GEO and ICE appeared to have ignored those requests.
The governor’s office asked for details of the TB contact investigation performed within the facility to date and details about what happened to the person diagnosed with active TB.
“Has the facility conducted a contact investigation in response to the June active TB case?” the letter asked. A contact investigation involves identifying people in the facility who were potentially exposed to an active TB case to see if they’re infected with the bacteria that causes TB disease and then providing appropriate treatment to other contacts if needed.
If yes, the letter stated, health officials need a list of possible exposures and any clinical information, like lab results, radiological results, and prescribed treatment that was performed in response to the contact investigation.
Polis also asked for a detailed summary of the contact investigation, including number of detainees, staff and visitors exposed, the number tested plus test results, the number receiving chest x-rays and the number who received treatment.
The letter also posed a series of questions about the person diagnosed with active TB. It asked GEO to inform the state if the individual is still at the facility and if not, when they left and where they are now. The state also wants treatment information, including any medications given to the patient prior to leaving the facility.
Community groups sent a letter Friday to Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat who is running for governor, citing inhumane conditions and urging him to force GEO and ICE to let public health officials check detainees and treat any who have caught TB. Weiser said he was ready to work with the governor and state officials on the issue.
The letter said people detained in the center face“overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, food insecurity, and inadequate medical care” as well as a malfunctioning air-conditioning system that causes people to be frequently moved “likely accelerating the spread of this airborne disease.”
Temperatures in Denver have been consistently above 90 degrees for much of the summer.
CPR reached out to the campaign of Victor Marx, the Republican running for governor, for comment Tuesday. His team has not yet responded.
Protesters call for more information, as do state lawmakers
A couple dozen demonstrators gathered Monday at ICE’s Denver field office in Centennial.
A coalition of groups are calling for the Aurora center and others around the country to be shuttered, in part due to the concerns for the health of detainees and staff and public health impacts in general.
“The medical neglect I think is the most telling example of how inhumane these facilities are,”said AnnaRose Craig, who said she works for the American Friends Service Committee.
Another protester, Yoselin Corrales, with the group Aurora Unidos CSO, led chants of “Shame, shame!”
She said GEO and ICE denying health officials information and access, “only puts our detained neighbors and our broader community at risk.”
“It is clear that GEO Group, along with ICE, will do anything they can to avoid accountability and keep their abuses in the dark,” she said.
GEO Group filed a lawsuit against the state in June to stop enforcement of a new law which requires regular health and safety inspections of immigrant detention facilities.
“I think the conditions are horrible. They're terrible. We've heard so many cases of people not accessing healthcare,” said one of the law’s co-sponsor Rep. Lorena Garcia, a Democrat from Adams County.
Garcia spoke while at an event on another issue in Denver. She noted lawmakers passed the bill to provide better oversight of how the centers operate.
