The Aurora City Council this week rightly tabbed the tuberculosis case at the GEO ICE detention facility a public health crisis and not part of the local and national immigration debate.
Details reported by The Sentinel are alarming enough to warrant immediate attention, even at a time of endless national distractions and chaos.
Adams County health officials have been investigating a confirmed case of tuberculosis at the detention center since June. The GEO facility has not provided the information investigators say they need to ensure inmates, employees and the public are safe.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reports that weeks after it first learned of the crisis, it still has not been granted access to the facility nor the data necessary to determine whether the disease has been contained.
Aurora Congressperson Jason Crow’s office says staffers can’t confirm ICE reports that the detainee who tested positive was deported, as Trump officials have claimed, nor whether that person remains in the United States.
That should alarm and outrage every resident of Aurora and the metro area.
Tuberculosis is not a disease that can be managed with public relations statements and bureaucratic evasions. It requires rigorous contact tracing, transparent reporting, medical documentation and coordination with public health authorities. Yet the GEO facility’s response, backed by ICE, has been marked by contradictions, delays and an unnerving lack of verifiable information.
This is why the Trump administration’s already dismal record on disease control and public health protocols matters. From repeated attacks on scientific expertise to the politicization of federal health agencies and the erosion of public trust, this administration has demonstrated that it is ill-equipped to make credible medical and public health judgments.
That lack of competence is especially concerning within Homeland Security and ICE, agencies whose primary mission is enforcement, not epidemiology.
Because the Trump administration has squandered its credibility through secrecy and hostility toward independent oversight, it is essential that the Adams County Health Department and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment be given immediate access to the facility, its medical records, testing data and transportation records.
The public deserves a detailed accounting from professionals whose obligation is to follow the science, not protect a federal contractor.
Most important right now, where is the infected detainee?
The administration says there is no active case in the Aurora facility. That is not the same thing as proving the person was safely treated, properly isolated or removed without exposing others. We do not know whether other detainees, employees, transport personnel or community contacts were exposed. We do not know whether potentially infected individuals are still in Aurora.
In a tuberculosis investigation, those aren’t minor gaps. That is the investigation.
At this point, just talking about concern isn’t enough. Attorney General Phil Weiser, members of Congress, the governor’s office, state health officials and the Adams County Health Department should immediately coordinate a unified legal response.
If GEO and ICE continue to withhold information or deny access, they should face prompt court action compelling full compliance with Colorado public health law.
Now.
Every day without complete transparency is another day in which contact tracing may become more difficult, exposure chains may widen and public trust may deteriorate further.
Aurora is not asking for special treatment. It is asking for the minimum that any community is owed during a potential infectious disease emergency.
Now.
