U.S. detention facilities face mumps threat

An outbreak of the mumps virus in the U.S. government’s crowded immigration detention facilities is adding a new strain to a system that the secretary of Homeland Security warned months ago had reached its “breaking point.”

Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Homeland Security agency responsible for the long-term detention and deportation of people who are in the country illegally, said Friday that they have quarantined 5,200 migrants at 39 detention facilities across the country, most after exposure to mumps. The agency said it has confirmed 334 mumps cases since September. Mumps is considered a highly contagious but not life-threatening disease.

The quarantines, which were first reported by CNN, come as the Trump administration has struggled to manage an ongoing influx of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, where immigration authorities have apprehended nearly 600,000 people since October.

ICE agents have apprehended another 34,500 people in the interior of the U.S., according to official government statistics. The agency says it is currently holding about 52,560 people in detention facilities across the country, 5,000 more than it forecast in its 2019 budget.

Nathalie Asher, executive associate director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, said that the need for quarantines to prevent the spread of infection will result in lengthier detention times and compound backlogs across the system.