Colorado accuses immigrant detention center operator of blocking tuberculosis investigation

Since the first case was reported in June, Colorado health officials have been unable to investigate a suspected tuberculosis outbreak at an immigrant detention facility outside of Denver.AURORA, Colo. (CN) — The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment sued Wednesday to force a government contracted prison company to comply with an investigation into tuberculosis at an Aurora, Colorado, immigrant detention center.“The GEO Group is endangering Coloradans’ public health by refusing to follow the state health department’s order and by violating Colorado law,” Attorney General Philip Weiser said in a statement.The GEO Group manages the facility that can house up to 1,500 people. On June 11, the Adams County Health Department received a report of a possible tuberculosis case at the facility. Two weeks later, The GEO Group assured county officials the detainee had been isolated and allowed them to speak over the phone.Following the phone interview, Weiser said in the complaint, The GEO Group refused to provide health officials with the detainee’s medical information or how many others the detainee had been in contact with.Meanwhile, reports emerged that at least 12 detainees had contracted the disease by mid-July.Caused by a bacterial infection in the lungs, tuberculosis is a highly contagious disease and one of the world’s leading causes of death. Detention facilities, where people live in close proximity to one another, pose a high risk of outbreaks.Colorado health officials worry not only about the disease spreading among inmates, but the bacteria being passed onto the detention center staff and spreading into the community at large.In the complaint, Weiser cites news reports of the ill detainee being transferred to a Texas detention center for deportation, a development he called “pressing.”“Even if true, this does not end the public health emergency. If anything, it makes the need to obtain information from the facility even more pressing, because CDPHE’s ability to conduct its investigation only becomes harder with the passage of time,” Weiser wrote in the complaint.State law tasks the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment with investigating and controlling communicable diseases including tuberculosis.To conduct an investigation, the department typically conducts a thorough review of “all medical practitioners, hospitals, institutions, and clinics, both public and private, where persons with known or suspected tuberculosis are treated.”That process was followed in 2019, when the department worked with the immigrant detention center to contain a mumps outbreak, and even uncovered several cases of chickenpox.In 2024, when a detainee at the Aurora ICE facility tested positive for tuberculosis, the state and county health departments conducted an investigation and discovered 12 people carrying inactive TB infections, leading to weekly check-ins with the Denver Health Tuberculosis Clinic.In light of the risks, Weiser, a Democrat, criticized The GEO Group for expecting “Colorado to put blind-faith into the facility’s response to the disease.”The GEO Group and ICE did not immediately respond to press inquiries.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads