Immigration officials still blocking Aurora tuberculosis investigation

It’s been six weeks since local and state health officials trying to investigate a case of tuberculosis at the immigration detention facility in Aurora last heard from the GEO Group, the private contractor operating the center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

That’s despite repeated, ongoing efforts from local investigators to learn more about how many people were exposed to the potentially fatal infectious disease in the crowded facility and where those people are now.

But, authorities are also unlikely at this time to take further legal action to compel GEO to cooperate with the investigation, despite an existing Adams County public health order requiring the facility’s compliance. Kelly Weidenbach, executive director of the Adams County Health Department, said any new legal effort would likely get sucked into an ongoing federal lawsuit in which GEO is challenging the state’s authority to conduct health and safety inspections at the facility.

“We have received advice from our counsel that it is likely a situation where the court would stay our motion until that litigation is resolved,” Weidenbach said during a virtual town hall meeting that the department hosted Friday. “So that is a limitation on our side at this moment.”

The consequence is that, two months after a single case of active tuberculosis was confirmed at the facility, state and local public health officials are in an extraordinary standoff.

The door to a solitary confinement unit is shown at the Aurora ICE Processing Center, which is owned and operated by GEO Group Inc. Immigration & Customs Enforcement incarcerates people who have pending or recently concluded immigration legal cases at this facility. (Provided by American Friends Service Committee of Colorado)

Tuberculosis, a bacterial disease that spreads through the air, is considered such a serious public health risk that there are laws in state statute specifically related to controlling it. As Weidenbach said Friday, the law makes clear that “investigation is not optional.”

But because of GEO’s unwillingness to cooperate with the investigation, Adams County chief medical officer Dr. Wendy Bamberg said officials do not know the current location of the person who tested positive; whether that person is receiving treatment or continuing to expose others; how many other detainees may have been exposed and where they currently are; or whether any employees and contractors were exposed and may have carried the disease with them outside the facility.

“We need to identify who is exposed so that we can make sure that those individuals are tested appropriately, and if needed, those people are treated,” Bamberg said. “Even if there is no active infectious case of tuberculosis within the facility, we still need to be able to follow the people who are exposed because those people may not be at that facility now.”

Tuberculosis typically requires prolonged exposure to someone who is actively sick to spread. But, for those who are infected, it can lie dormant for months or years before turning into an active infection. 

In various statements to reporters, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the infected detainee had been “treated, cleared, and removed from the country” and that there were no other active or suspected cases of tuberculosis found at the facility.

Dr. Rachel Herlihy, the deputy chief medical officer at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said the state has exchanged “correspondence” with federal officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.

Herlihy said the feds “have indicated to us that they have implemented some disease control strategies, including some type of contact investigation.” But Herlihy said the information was “very high level” and lacked the specifics local authorities need to truly understand what is going on.

“This is a uniquely frustrating experience and a uniquely challenging set of circumstances,” Herlihy said. “I would say that it is unusual for us to not be able to gain cooperation with a private entity, and I would say even historically in our relationship with GEO, we’ve had years of collaboration and cooperation leading up to this.”

As recently as January, Adams County public health officials were able to conduct inspections at the GEO facility, Weidenbach said. One thing that’s changed since then is that state lawmakers passed a bill strengthening local authority to conduct health and safety investigations in immigration detention facilities.

GEO sued the state and the Adams County Health Department, seeking to strike down the law. A federal judge last week heard arguments over whether to temporarily block the law. The judge has not indicated when he might rule on a temporary injunction.

To local officials, the longer the standoff goes on, the greater the risk of a public health scare turning into a crisis.

“If we don’t know about what’s happening within the facility, then we can’t help manage that situation and provide advice to that facility,” Bamberg said. “But we also don’t necessarily know what’s happening in our community.”