At least 14 cases of measles have been confirmed at the nation’s largest ICE detention facility, an agency spokesperson told NBC News in a statement.
People who tested positive for the highly contagious disease at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, have been “cohorted and separated from the rest of the detained population to prevent further spread,” the spokesperson said.
The agency “is closely monitoring the situation and coordinating with public health authorities to ensure appropriate medical care and containment measures are in place — the health and safety of detainees, staff, and the community remain a top priority,” the spokesperson added.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, whose El Paso district includes the detention center located on the Fort Bliss Army base, said the facility is closed to visitors and attorneys because of the outbreak.
In addition to the 14 people who got sick, 112 other individuals have been isolated in connection to the outbreak, according to Escobar.
“There has been nothing but crisis after crisis inside the walls of this tent city," the Democratic congresswoman said in a statement.
Since Camp East Montana opened last year, three detainees have died while in ICE custody. Victor Manuel Diaz, 36, of Nicaragua, "died of a presumed suicide" inside the facility on Jan. 14. Francisco Gaspar-Andres, 48, a detainee from Guatemala, died of health complications from cirrhosis and cardiac hypertrophy.
Another Camp East Montana detainee, 55-year-old Geraldo Lunas Campos, of Cuba, died on Jan. 3 and his death was ruled a homicide.
According to ICE, the agency provides comprehensive medical care for detainees, including dental and mental health services, as well as access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.
On Wednesday, Escobar called for Camp East Montana to be shut down and for an investigation into the facility's contractor.
Camp East Montana holds an average of 2,954 detainees inside its soft-sided tent-style structure, which ICE increasingly favors over brick-and-mortar buildings. That's the largest number of ICE detainees so far in fiscal year 2026, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
Acquisition Logistics LLC, a Virginia contractor that had not operated an ICE facility before, was awarded a $1.2 billion contract last summer to build and operate Camp East Montana.
Since then, the small company run by Kenneth Wagner out of his single-family home in Virginia has garnered national attention. Before the Camp East Montana contract, the company’s largest contract, according to public records, appears to have been worth $16 million.
The company’s website currently has little information aside from an address and a header saying, “Site maintenance in progress.” Wagner could not be reached at the phone number listed for his business on Wednesday.
