TB is spreading in ICE detention centers. So what's the agency's responsibility?
Aug 20, 2025
Several Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities have reported issues with tuberculosis or TB.
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Tuberculosis outbreaks are causing concerns at several ICE detention facilities
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A 45-year-old Ethiopian man died from TB while in custody at a detention center in Arizona
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Other cases have been reported at facilities in Southern California, Alaska, Washington State, and Colorado
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Straight Arrow News reached out to ICE, but we didn't hear back. And we spoke to a law professor who said the agency is responsible for detainees
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency is obligated to provide for the health care needs of anyone who is detaining
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These are obviously not people who can go and seek medical care on their own
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Tuberculosis kills one and a half million people worldwide every year, despite being preventable and treatable
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TB has been around forever. I mean, since people were around, right
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It's a very old disease. It is a bacterial infection. It is spread through the air by coughing, breathing, sneezing, singing, a lot of things
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TB is preventable with a vaccine. That vaccine is often given to newborns in other countries
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It not a great vaccine I would say that most people who die of TB were probably vaccinated but they were vaccinated as a baby The vaccine is not commonly used in the U in part because America only saw 11 cases last year
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TB is a disease of poor people, to be honest. And so as the socioeconomic status of a country goes up, the TB rates go down
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And so here we never vaccinated, at least not regularly. Conditions inside immigration detention centers are often a perfect place for a condition like TB to thrive
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Among the major risk factors, being close to someone who's infected. ICE actually has its own health unit called the ICE Health Service Corps
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I think that there's a question about whether ICE is complying with its own detention standards
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And that in and of itself might give rise to a viable lawsuit
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I wouldn't hold my breath for that. Again, the standard is so low
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Courts have been very reluctant to exert much oversight. For Straight Arrow News, I'm Lauren Canan
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