Detainees inside the Aurora ICE Processing Center say a housing unit holding as many as 90 men was placed under a three-day quarantine this month after medical staff told them they had been exposed to tuberculosis, with the unit subjected to mass skin testing and masking before restrictions lifted. Two detainees said the lockdown began September 11 and ended three days later, during which men were barred from entering or leaving the pod.
The quarantine, first reported by The Denver Post, came three months after a confirmed tuberculosis case at the facility in June 2026, and it unfolded the same week that congressional staff and a U.S. senator's office visited the GEO Group-owned complex. According to the newspaper, medical staff informed the roughly 80 to 90 men in the pod that they had been exposed to the disease, and the unit received tuberculosis skin tests and masks before the restriction was lifted.
A Sick Newcomer, Sent Back Into the Pod
Detainees described a new arrival who was visibly ill before he was taken away from the pod, per the Post's reporting. During the office visit, Hickenlooper's staff saw masked GEO employees and detainees in medical monitoring. Detainee Ronald Aguirre said a medical staff member told detainees the ill man had tested positive for tuberculosis, according to the paper, though the man himself indicated he did not have the disease, per detainee Chavez Martinez. The ill man was later returned to the housing unit, the Post reported. GEO medical staff and ICE personnel refused to answer questions from Hickenlooper's office about recent tuberculosis cases, testing, or quarantines.
Senator Hickenlooper said public health officials cannot stop a tuberculosis outbreak they are not allowed to track, according to a statement from the senator's office criticizing ICE and GEO Group staff for refusing to answer questions during the September 18 congressional visit. He added that ICE's refusal to follow Colorado law or give members of Congress answers puts lives at risk. Hickenlooper had previously visited the facility in late August 2026 to press for state public health compliance, per his office.
Representative Jason Crow's staff separately visited the facility on September 11, the same day the quarantine reportedly began, and were told there were no communicable diseases present, according to the congressional report cited by the Post. Crow's staff did count seven detainees under medical monitoring, though ICE and GEO would not elaborate on why, the paper reported. Advocacy groups Casa de Paz and the American Friends Service Committee both work with people detained at the facility, per the Post's account.
State and County Say They Heard Nothing New
Adams County health officials and state health officials both said they had not received information about a new tuberculosis case at the facility, the Post reported, and 911 call logs indicated no ambulance calls to GEO during the quarantine period. ICE officials said there were no additional infections after the earlier case was identified in June. GEO spokesperson Christopher Ferreira referred comment to ICE, according to the newspaper.
The dispute over the June case has already escalated into court. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser sued GEO Group in Adams County District Court on August 19, 2026, alleging the company failed to comply with a state public health order directing it to hand over medical records, contact tracing data, and detainee transfer logs tied to the confirmed June tuberculosis case, according to the Colorado Attorney General's office. The lawsuit followed an August 17 deadline GEO missed after an initial Adams County health order issued in June, and the attorney general's office says the case remains ongoing.
Adams County investigated a suspected tuberculosis outbreak earlier this year but did not identify any outbreaks, per the Post's reporting; GEO Group then stopped cooperating with the county's investigation into the earlier case. County and state officials issued public health orders directing GEO to turn over information, which the company refused to provide, prompting the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to file suit in August to force compliance. The attorney general's office notes that Colorado public health agencies manage an average of 77 tuberculosis cases annually across schools, hospitals, workplaces, and correctional facilities, with non-federal institutions routinely providing full medical data for contact tracing — a norm the state says GEO Group broke by offering only summary assurances rather than verifiable records.
A Federal Judge Sides With GEO Group on Inspections
The state's legal footing got shakier weeks before the latest quarantine. U.S. District Chief Judge Daniel Domenico issued a preliminary injunction in August blocking parts of Colorado's HB 26-1276, the law mandating unannounced state health inspections of civil immigration detention facilities, ruling that it impermissibly singled out GEO Group as a federal contractor, according to Courthouse News. Colorado had enacted the law in June 2026 to expand inspection powers and establish $50,000 civil fines for noncompliance, as reported by CBS News.
Federal guidance points the other direction. CDC guidelines for correctional and detention settings state that it is mandatory for all facilities — private, federal, state, or local — to report both suspected and confirmed tuberculosis cases to state or local health departments, and recommend entry screening, airborne infection isolation, and full contact investigations for every identified case. During a previous tuberculosis investigation at the facility in 2024, state and local health officials were granted access to conduct contact tracing that uncovered 12 detainees carrying inactive latent infections, according to Courthouse News, though latent TB is non-contagious and requires only routine medical check-ins.
The Post also reported that ICE and GEO revised their contract on September 3, requiring GEO to obtain federal preclearance before turning over ICE detainee information to third parties — a change that predates the quarantine detainees described. The facility, built in the 1980s to house up to 150 people, has expanded repeatedly and can now house up to 1,530 people, per the Post, with GEO Group owning and operating the complex under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A Pattern of Outbreaks and Access Fights
The Aurora facility has a documented history of infectious disease events. A 2019 mumps outbreak involved 15 confirmed cases alongside nine cases of chickenpox that triggered multi-week housing pod quarantines, according to Sentinel Colorado, and a health department audit that year found roughly 20% of staff lacked documented MMR vaccinations. In July 2026, medical advocates submitted complaints to state and local health agencies alleging excessive heat, restricted drinking water, and widespread respiratory illness inside housing pods, warning that poor ventilation heightened transmission risks, per CBS News.
Access disputes between Colorado's federal delegation and ICE are not new either. In February 2026, a federal court granted emergency relief to Representative Crow and other Democratic lawmakers, temporarily blocking a Department of Homeland Security policy requiring seven days' advance notice for congressional inspections of ICE facilities. Hoodline previously reported on Polis signing new watchdog laws for the facility. Whether the September exposure detainees described stemmed from a new active case or cross-exposure tied to the June case remains an open question, as does whether Adams County courts will be able to compel GEO Group's cooperation given the ongoing federal preemption ruling.
