Two cases of tuberculosis in the largest US migrant detention center

Austin– At least two migrants have been infected with tuberculosis in the largest detention center for migrants in the United States, according to local media reports. Congresswoman Veronica Escobar and local authorities confirmed that two people tested positive for tuberculosis and 18 others for covid-19 at the center known as Camp East Montana, according to The Texas Tribune portal. In statements to the portal, Escobar reported that he learned of the outbreaks of these diseases last month, in a meeting that was also attended by officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The legislator, who visited the center last Friday, said on her X platform account that the problems “persist” and that the administration of the facilities – in charge of a private company called Acquisitions Logistics – is “getting worse and worse”. Reports of these infections come a week after the US confined another detention center, the only one where migrant families are detained and also in Texas, due to a measles outbreak.

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The conditions at Camp East Montana, a megacenter that is not composed of buildings but of tents and has a capacity for about 5,000 detainees, have been criticized by several human rights organizations, which have even called for its immediate closure. Three people have died inside the center so far this year: one of them by suicide, another after kidney failure, and the third by “homicide” in a confrontation with the center’s staff, according to official versions and leaks to US media. Under the current Administration, migrant detentions in the U.S. reached record levels: in January, the U.S. held more than 73,000 migrants in detention, the highest figure since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2001, according to data leaked to CBS News. Last year was the deadliest in at least two decades for people in ICE custody, with more than 30 deaths.