The Border Patrol is holding 50,000 illegal aliens at border detention centers. Of those 2,000 are being held in medical quarantine for various diseases, including many with the mumps.
It is no coincidence that illegals are bringing mumps into the country, mostly in California, where there is a mumps epidemic. Mumps can prove fatal to older people such as myself and thus is a danger to our country. The outbreak has happened at the privately run Pine Prairie U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Processing Center.
Mumps can also, besides death, cause brain swelling, sterility and hearing loss.
ICE health officials have been notified of 236 confirmed or probable cases of mumps among detainees in 51 facilities in the past 12 months, compared to no cases detected between January 2016 and February 2018. Last year, 423 detainees were determined to have influenza and 461 to have chicken pox. All three diseases are largely preventable by vaccine.
As of March 7, a total of 2,287 detainees were quarantined around the country, ICE spokesman Brendan Raedy told Reuters.
Ten Democratic members of Congress sent a letter on Feb. 28 to ICE acting Director Ronald Vitiello seeking more information about viral diseases at immigration detention centers in Colorado, Arizona and Texas. Lawmakers did not mention the Pine Prairie outbreak.
Pablo Paez, a spokesman for the GEO Group, the private prison operator that runs Pine Prairie under government contract, said its medical professionals follow standards set by ICE and health authorities. He said medical care provided to detainees allows the company “to detect, treat and follow appropriate medical protocols to manage an infectious outbreak.”