Imagine a place meant to keep people safe turning into a hotbed of flu and stomach bugs 🤒. That's exactly what's happening this month at the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora, Colorado, a near-capacity center run by GEO Group under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
According to Jennifer Lucero-Alvarez, a spokeswoman for the Adams County Health Department, officials have recently "received multiple reports about possible gastrointestinal and respiratory illness" among detainees 😷. ICE hasn't revealed how many people are affected, but U.S. Representative Jason Crow's office confirmed multiple flu cases early this month.
This isn't the first time Aurora has faced an outbreak. Between 2019 and early 2020, the center battled mumps, chickenpox, and influenza, quarantining dozens of detainees. A 2024 American Civil Liberties Union report also highlighted alarming issues: medical mismanagement, dental neglect, and at least two deaths linked to inadequate care.
Sadly, Aurora's experience is part of a bigger picture. A University of California, San Francisco study published in JAMA found that 17 of 22 ICE facilities saw vaccine-preventable outbreaks from January 2017 to March 2020, including one chickenpox outbreak that dragged on for nearly three years 🕒.
Even more recently, December 2025 brought a scabies outbreak at the Golden State Annex Facility in California, and in July 2025, the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma confirmed suspected tuberculosis cases. These stories underscore a troubling trend: as of January 2025, 86 percent of ICE detainees were held in for-profit centers, with GEO Group and CoreCivic leading the market.
On January 12, the Aurora City Council passed a resolution condemning ICE operations in the city, pointing to the health crisis and other overreach cases. Meanwhile, in the week of January 11, Representative Crow filed a lawsuit accusing the previous administration of blocking congressional oversight of these detention centers.
With fresh alarms ringing in Aurora and beyond, advocates are calling for transparency and better medical care in ICE facilities. For the thousands of people detained across the U.S., timely treatment isn't just about comfort—it's about health, dignity, and basic human rights ✊.
Reference(s):
Sickness spreads as U.S. immigration detention health crisis worsens
cgtn.com
