Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers say that more than two thousand illegal immigrants currently being held in ICE custody are quarantined for exhibiting signs of infectious diseases, including the mumps.
CNN reports that the number of asylum seekers and other immigrant detainees being held along the border in towns like El Paso, Texas, has spiked since last year, and that ICE and United States Customs and Border Protection are dealing with more seriously ill immigrants than every before.
“As of March 7, 2019, there was a total of 2,287 detainees cohorted for exposure to a detainee with a contagious condition,” an ICE spokesman said in a statement to media made earlier this week.
“In the past 12 months, there have been health investigations at 51 ICE detention facilities for mumps, chickenpox and influenza, according to [ICE officials],” CNN reports. “There have been 236 reported cases of mumps, with another 16 suspected cases during this time period.” – MORE