Texas Reports 136 Measles Cases This Year, Most Linked to Detention Facilities

Ninety-nine of Texas's 136 measles cases this year trace back to a single detention facility in Hudspeth County that does not appear on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's public list of detention centers, raising unanswered questions about federal oversight and disease containment in congregate settings.

Texas Department of State Health Services spokesperson Lara Anton confirmed that the largest concentration of cases, 99 as of March 11, is at one federal detention facility in Hudspeth County. Hudspeth County Judge Joanna MacKenzie identified that facility to the Texas Tribune as the West Texas Detention Facility, a site managed by LaSalle Corrections, a private company. The facility has previously housed immigrant detainees, though it does not currently appear on ICE's list of detention facilities.

Of the 136 total cases reported statewide, 116 were inside detention facilities. The remaining 20 cases were spread across six counties: El Paso, Bexar, Bandera, Kendall, Lubbock, and Rockwall. State health officials said those individuals were infected through international travel, domestic travel, or community transmission. Whether any of those 20 cases are linked to contact with people inside detention facilities remains unclear, and Anton did not immediately respond to questions on that point.

An El Paso spokesperson previously said the community cases and infections at the ICE facility are not connected, but did not explain how the city is conducting contact tracing to support that conclusion.

Federal accountability has proved elusive. It remains unclear whether the Department of Homeland Security has launched any investigation into measles cases at ICE facilities; the department has not responded to repeated questions on the matter. When asked about infections at Camp East Montana, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson directed questions to DHS without elaboration.

Texas's 136 cases place it third nationally among states with the highest measles counts so far this year, behind South Carolina with 664 cases and Utah with 231. Both of those outbreaks have been ongoing since last year.

State health officials have continued to urge vaccination as the primary defense against measles spread, particularly as cases concentrate in crowded institutional settings where containment is difficult and contact tracing is, by the available evidence, still incomplete.