Colorado issues public health order over tuberculosis case at Aurora ICE facility

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment issued a public health order on Thursday afternoon ordering The GEO Group to provide information about a recent tuberculosis case in an Aurora immigration detention center.

It comes nearly two months after the Adams County Health Department issued an order on the same issue. GEO, the private company that operates the detention center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has not complied with that order.

“CDPHE’s priority is protecting everyone connected to the facility, including detained people, employees, contractors, visitors, and the broader community,” CDPHE Executive Director Jill Hunsaker Ryan said in a statement. “We sought to complete this routine investigation collaboratively, just as we would with any other facility in Colorado. Because repeated requests and the county’s public health order have not produced the necessary information, we are taking this additional step to obtain the information needed to protect public health.”

The order seeks access to information about the confirmed TB case in order to complete a public health investigation. GEO and ICE have provided general information that the infected person was isolated, treated and removed from the country, but state and local public health officials are unable to independently verify that without the requested access.

They want specific information about infected people’s test results, treatment and current location, as well as information for contact tracing. The order does not demand that public health workers physically go inside the facility. Federal officials have repeatedly said there are not active cases in the detention center.

“GEO’s denial of access to the detention facility, the individual with confirmed tuberculosis, the individual’s medical information, and other potentially exposed individuals is impeding public health’s ability to conduct a needed disease control investigation to ensure that infection control measures are sufficient to prevent further spread of disease,” the order states.

If GEO does not comply with CDPHE’s order by Aug. 17, the state can take legal action against the private company.

Adams County officials first learned of a laboratory-confirmed active TB case in late June, then issued a county-level public health order. It has been state law for decades that public health officials investigate any active cases of TB. An oversight report from U.S. Rep. Jason Crow’s office then found that 61 people were exposed to the sick person and isolated.

After GEO did not address Adams County’s order, Ryan formally requested clinical information from GEO. Since then, the governor’s office has reached out twice. GEO has not provided the requested underlying action or access. Advocates have been calling on the state to escalate the issue for weeks.

Representatives from GEO and ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This story originally appeared in Colorado Newsline, part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.