Twenty-five detainees have been quarantined at the immigration detention facility in Aurora due to an outbreak of scabies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed Monday evening.
Six people contracted the contagious skin condition, and 19 others were exposed to it, said ICE spokesperson Alethea Smock in a statement, as first reported by a Denver Westword journalist.
ICE officials attributed the outbreak to the influx of migrants coming into the country through the U.S. southern border.
“Each ICE detainee receives a medical examination upon arrival at the facility to check for potential signs of illness,” Smock wrote. “However, ICE has no way of knowing what diseases or viruses a person may have been exposed before they enter the facility.”
Detainees will be treated with an ointment before being released from quarantine, which the facility expects to receive Tuesday, according to ICE.
ICE officials commended the medical personnel at the facility, run by the private prison company The GEO Group, for containing the outbreak from spreading further and taking swift action, per guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the ICE Health Services Corps.
ICE and The GEO Group have been criticized for alleged medical abuses and neglect, some of which critics say is caused by a lack of enough medical providers for the number of detainees being housed in the facility.
In October, the Aurora City Council passed an ordinance requiring all detention facilities in the city to notify the fire department of any outbreaks after a string of mumps and chicken pox outbreaks at the ICE facility earlier this year. The Aurora Fire Department confirmed that detention officials notified them of the outbreak last week.
The mumps and chicken pox outbreaks triggered a hunger strike by detainees in March and led to calls for congressional oversight.
The Tri-County Health Department and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment previously worked with ICE and the GEO Group to provide recommendations on preventing the spread of mumps and chicken pox. However, scabies is not a disease outbreak that the detention facility is required to report to public health departments, according to a spokesperson for Tri-County Health.
The health department can assist if The GEO group or ICE request it, but they had not asked for help as of Monday, said Tri-County Health Department spokesperson Gary Sky.
