U.S. Congressman Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, is calling for the immediate closing of the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, roughly an hour southwest of his hometown, in response to the measles outbreak there.
“Because of the close-quarter conditions at Dilley, lack of prompt medical response and capacity, and lack of expertise with diseases such as measles, Dilley is not equipped to combat any spread,” Castro tweeted Monday.
Immigration attorney Eric Lee, who represents families held at the Dilley detention center, first brought the Current’s attention to the measles situation over the weekend. Lee’s reports were later confirmed by Castro’s staff and the Department of Homeland Security.
In his statement, Castro demanded that trained medical professionals, not federal immigration officials, be allowed to treat people incarcerated at the center, which the ACLU alleges has repeatedly denied medical care to migrants in its custody.
“ICE confirmed that no person at Dilley is a criminal,” Castro wrote. “If an individual has been tested and diagnosed with measles, they should be moved to a facility with the medical capacity for proper treatment and containment.”
While measles were once thought eradicated in the U.S., outbreaks of the disease have popped up again. Public health officials lay much of the blame at growing vaccine skepticism fostered by right-wing media and political figures.
In recent weeks, ICE had quietly begun moving some of the 400 children at the Dilley detention center and their parents to a low-security shelter in Laredo. However, it’s unclear whether that move was due to the measles outbreak.
State Rep. Josey Garcia, D-San Antonio, who spoke to reporters during a school walkout at San Antonio Sotomayor High School on Monday, said some migrant in the Dilley center are being relocated to Laredo. However, she was short on details.
“Some are going to be released to their families,” Garcia said. “Others are still pending their due process. There’s a lot of advocacy that’s going on.”
Garcia added that she’s opposed to referring to the migrants in Dilley and Laredo as “detainees.”
“They’re non-criminal citizens,” Garcia said. “To say the word ‘detainee,’ for me as a veteran, makes me think of an enemy combatant. These are children, these are women, these are people who have not committed a crime.”
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