The private company that operates the immigration detention facility in Aurora is blocking investigation into the possible spread of tuberculosis there, an Adams County health official stated in a court document earlier this month.
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After learning of a positive test for active tuberculosis from a detainee at the facility in early June, the Adams County Health Department launched an investigation, as is required under state law. However, Kelly Weidenbach, the executive director of the department, said her investigators were met with a lack of cooperation from federal immigration authorities and representatives of the GEO Group, which operates the facility, known as the Aurora ICE Processing Center, or AIPC.
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In a statement issued Tuesday, Weidenbach confirmed that investigators are still being denied access to the infected patient, medical records, information on detainee movement and other details needed to determine who may have been exposed to the disease and how far it may have spread. This lack of cooperation comes despite the Adams County Health Department issuing a public health order on June 25 requiring compliance, the department said.
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The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment sent a letter Tuesday to the warden and the health administrator of the Aurora facility requesting that they “immediately provide the access, records, and information needed to conduct the public health investigation.”
“GEO’s continued failure to provide complete and timely access is impeding a legally required public health investigation,” the agency wrote in a statement distributed to the media. “Every delay makes it harder to identify, test, and treat people who may have been exposed and increases the risk of further transmission.”
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The Aurora detention facility can hold up to 1,532 people, though it is unclear how many are being held there. In U.S. Rep. Jason Crow’s most recent oversight report on the facility, he documented 1,249 people detained at the facility.
As of the end of 2025, the facility employed one doctor, two physician assistants, 18 registered nurses or licensed nurse practitioners, a health services administrator and an assistance health services administrator, according to Crow’s report.
Remember, fascism goes hand-in-hand with late-stage capitalism. Valuing all human life costs money and so not caring about some human lives is an "acceptable business decision". Just as it is not an acceptable business decision to invest into climate neutrality. This all goes hand-in-hand with right-wing extremist governments which also never care about some lives and which are great enablers and amplifiers of fast, short-term profits. That is really what it has come down to. Everything is now a short-term business decision. And when governments are right-wing, there is no counterbalance anymore against obscenely rich and powerful businesses and individuals (there also wasn't much before, to be fair, but in this case it's basically zero). There's a reason why L. Ron Musk, for example, is influencing e.g. U.K. elections and wants the British people voting for right-wing extremist politicians. That reason is not because he cares about the British people. He doesn't even live there (he lives in the US). It's because it enables his companies, which also operate in U.K., more profit, less pesky regulations, and he doesn't care if a country eventually collapses under fascism, as long as he gets a bigger cut. It's also why he bought Twitter, turned it into a right-wing propaganda distribution platform called X, which probably eventually influenced enough US citizens to reach a voting majority for Trump. Which is also what he wanted. But of course he needs to sell it to the public like he cares about them. And, typically, people who are gullible enough to vote for right-wing extremists, are generally gullible enough to believe such lies. Just as fascists in the past were gullible enough to follow any powerful Führer personality.
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