EL PASO, Texas — City officials and a U.S. congressional representative told The Texas Tribune that two cases of tuberculosis and 18 cases of COVID-19 were identified at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Camp East Montana facility in El Paso.
This information came from U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, following her latest visit to the facility. She said that medical officials had previously informed her of the cases as part of mandatory reporting to local and state officials.
The tuberculosis cases were confirmed in a statement from the City of El Paso to Spectrum News on Feb. 6, stating, “The City of El Paso Department of Public Health has received notifications related to tuberculosis at Camp East Montana through required reporting protocols. ICE is required to report notifiable conditions, including confirmed or suspected tuberculosis.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told the Texas Tribune on Sunday that “there are no cases of tuberculosis at the El Paso ICE facility.”
According to City of El Paso spokesperson Laura Cruz-Acosta in a statement to the Tribune on Sunday, the individuals who were diagnosed with tuberculosis are no longer being housed at the facility after having been treated by ICE’s medical providers.
Neither DHS nor ICE further commented on what actions were taken to lockdown or quarantine the individuals reported to have contracted the infectious diseases. Federal officials also did not say what actions the government took to remove the patients from the facility.
This comes less than a week after two measles cases were reported at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, 70 miles away from San Antonio.
In just the first month of 2026, three deaths have been reported at ICE detention facilities across the state.