ICE and Hospital Failures Fueled Measles Outbreak in El Paso

El Paso’s public health response to a recent measles outbreak was hampered by glaring failures from ICE and local hospitals, emails obtained by El Paso Matters reveal. The outbreak, which sickened detainees and federal employees tied to immigration detention centers, exposed the deadly consequences of bureaucratic secrecy and broken communication.

Between February and March, city health officials struggled to trace and contain measles cases linked to ICE’s Camp East Montana and the West Texas Detention Facility. A key problem: ICE did not routinely share detainee movement or medical information with local health authorities, making contact tracing nearly impossible. Vanessa Casner, El Paso’s lead epidemiologist, bluntly noted that without accurate and complete data on cases and contacts, the city could not do its job.

The outbreak began with a 25-year-old man from Chiapas who crossed into El Paso and was quickly shuffled through multiple detention centers while contagious. Despite showing symptoms by February 6 and being hospitalized on February 7, critical notifications to public health officials were delayed or incomplete. Hospital staff at Del Sol Medical Center admitted the patient but moved him out of isolation prematurely and failed to promptly alert the city health department.

Another detainee followed a similar path, moving between holding facilities with a rash and fever before being sent to University Medical Center. Internal communications show that ICE facilities and hospitals operated in silos, failing to coordinate on this highly contagious disease.

The result: 24 measles cases reported in El Paso this year, including 16 detainees and eight community members—all linked to federal detention centers. Hudspeth County, home to the West Texas Detention Facility, saw 136 cases among detainees alone.

City leaders debated going public with the outbreak’s connection to detention centers but ultimately withheld information, citing jurisdictional boundaries. This decision left the community vulnerable, especially since many federal employees who contracted measles work in these facilities.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins, called the situation a textbook example of how failures in communication and patient transfer protocols can fuel infectious disease spread. “How could it happen?” he asked, highlighting the systemic breakdowns that allowed measles to spread unchecked.

In response, El Paso’s health department has administered over 200 measles vaccines to detainees, with additional doses given by state health services. But the outbreak underscores a grim reality: ICE’s for-profit detention system not only abuses human rights but also jeopardizes public health through lack of transparency and accountability.

This measles outbreak is yet another warning sign about the dangers of privatized immigration detention and the federal government’s failure to protect vulnerable populations and the broader community. Until ICE and hospitals commit to full transparency and cooperation with public health authorities, outbreaks like this will continue to threaten lives on the border and beyond.