At least 136 measles cases have been reported in Texas this year. The vast majority of them are in federal detention facilities, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
The largest concentration — 99 cases — is in a single federal detention facility in Hudspeth County, as of March 11, said DSHS spokesperson Lara Anton. Hudspeth County Judge Joanna MacKenzie told The Texas Tribune that these cases are at all at the West Texas Detention Facility, which is managed by LaSalle Corrections, a private company. The facility has previously housed immigrant detainees, though it’s not clear if it still does. It does not appear on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s list of detention facilities.
“Not having jurisdiction, my office is not involved in response,” MacKenzie added in a statement, “however I remain in communication with DSHS and LaSalle, as I regularly do.”
LaSalle Corrections didn’t immediately respond to a comment request, including a question about whether the West Texas Detention Facility still houses any immigrant detainees.
Anton also said two measles cases have been reported in a Frio County detention facility in South Texas. In late January, the federal government confirmed two cases at the South Texas Family Residential Center, the country’s only ICE facility holding children and their parents, in Dilley.
In addition, Anton said there were another 15 cases in El Paso County. El Paso city officials have previously said one of the cases is in the county jail while 14 cases were at Camp East Montana, the nation’s largest immigration detention facility.
Anton declined to provide further details about any of the cases in detention facilities, referring questions to the Department of Homeland Security instead. The federal agency didn’t immediately respond to comment requests from The Texas Tribune.
Measles — which is particularly dangerous to unvaccinated children, pregnant women and immunocompromised adults — is highly contagious and has a long incubation period. Infectious disease experts stress that investigations are important to determine how the infections happened and how to stop the spread.
Unlike last year’s historic measles outbreak, state officials have not been providing detailed information on how they have been responding to the current cases, including on contact tracing, vaccine response or providing demographic information on infected individuals and the number of hospitalizations. Another DSHS spokesperson, Chris Van Deusen, previously told the Tribune that the “state’s role inside federal facilities is very limited.”
Beyond measles, two cases of tuberculosis and 18 cases of COVID-19 were also detected at a troubled El Paso ICE detention tent camp in early February. Advocates and lawmakers have called for its closure, calling inadequate medical care one of their biggest concerns.
DHS, however, has defended itself when previously contacted by the Tribune over these concerns.
“It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody,” DHS former spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said last month. “This is the best healthcare many aliens have received their entire lives.”
Besides the 116 cases reported in detention facilities, another 20 cases have been reported in El Paso, Bexar, Bandera, Kendall, Lubbock and Rockwall counties, according to DSHS. Those people became infected from international travel, domestic travel, or they contracted it in the community, according to the state health agency. It’s not clear whether those who contracted measles due the latter two reasons were because they were in contact with anyone inside the detention facilities.
Anton didn’t immediately respond to the Tribune’s question on this issue.
An El Paso spokesperson previously told the Tribune that the community cases and the infections in the ICE facility are not connected, but didn’t explain how the city is conducting contact tracing.
It’s also not clear whether DHS has conducted an investigation in response to measles cases at any of the ICE facilities, as the department has not responded to repeated questions the Tribune previously sent. A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson also directed questions to DHS, when contacted by the Tribune over the infections at Camp East Montana.
At 136 cases, Texas is among states with the highest number of reported measles cases this year, behind South Carolina which has had 664 cases so far this year and Utah which has had 231 cases. Outbreaks in those states have been ongoing since last year.
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