US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has quarantined 5,200 adult immigrants after they were exposed to mumps or chicken pox.
The agency has recorded cases of the viral infections in nearly 40 migrant detention centers across the U.S., an ICE official told CNN.
About 4,200 have been exposed to mumps and about 800 were exposed to chicken pox. About 100 migrants were exposed to both.
Individuals are quarantined for 25 days.
Exposure to mumps does not mean the individuals were infected with the viral infection. From September 2018 to June 13, 297 migrants in ICE custody were confirmed as having mumps.
About 52,000 adults are in ICE custody.
“I think there is heightened interest in this situation because it’s the mumps, which is a new occurrence in custody, but preventing the spread of communicable disease in ICE custody is something we have demonstrated success doing,” said Nathalie Asher, the executive associate director for enforcement and removal operations at ICE.
“From an operational perspective, the impact is significant in the short and long term and will result in an increase in cohorted detainees’ length of stay in detention, an inability to effect removal of eligible cohorted detainees, and postponing scheduled consular interviews for quarantined detainees,” she said.
