Measles cases in Florence ICE detention center raise concerns about treatment

PHOENIX – As measles cases continue to rise across the state, legislators demanding accountability for the cases reported at the Florence Detention Center in Pinal County have been met with silence from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Officials at the Florence Detention Center confirmed seven active measles cases in early July and immediately suspended any visits to the facility that are not legally necessary. In a statement, DHS said that they took immediate steps to quarantine affected individuals and prevent further infection.

CoreCivic, the private prisons contractor that runs the Florence immigration detention center, also reported measles cases in February at one of its facilities in Dilley, Texas. Another outbreak was reported in March at a detention center in El Paso.

U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, representing Arizona’s 7th District, said this outbreak was the predictable result of mass deportation and dangerous overcrowding in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.

“When you have [Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] pushing an anti-vax agenda, it is not surprising that we're going to see more and more people contracting completely preventable diseases,” Grijalva said in an interview with CALÓ News.

In a letter sent to DHS on July 13, signed by Grijalva and Democratic colleagues Sen. Mark Kelly, Sen. Ruben Gallego, Rep. Greg Stanton and Rep. Yassamin Ansari, legislators demanded transparency and accountability regarding the current status of the measles outbreak and the measures that would be implemented to prevent future infections. The signers also requested that DHS brief their staff on these issues no later than July 20. As of the end of July, the legislators had yet to hear back.

“My understanding of what has happened under prior administrations is that regardless of party, if you asked specific questions of different departments the expectation was that [they] were going to respond to a member of Congress,” Grijalva said. “Individually, we're representing over 800,000 [constituents] and we need to know. We need to have answers… The only recourse that we have is not only to continue to request and demand the information, but to do that publicly.”

Experts — including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, managed by the Department of Health and Human Services — agree that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is the best way to prevent the spread of the viral illness. According to the Mayo Clinic, measles typically presents with flu-like symptoms, with tiny white spots appearing in the mouth by the second or third day and a rash on the skin after the fifth day. While the viral illness goes away within 10 days, it can become deadly in children and in people with weakened immune systems.

But when it comes to people being held in immigration detention centers, the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases is higher due to “crowding, suboptimal sanitation, limited health care access, poor ventilation and inconsistent diagnostic practices,” according to a study published in 2025 by a University of Minnesota researcher.

An increasing number of people detained in detention centers in Arizona are experiencing life-threatening medical neglect, according to the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project. Since the beginning of the Trump administration, at least 52 people have died in the custody of ICE, with causes of death ranging from strokes to COVID-19 infections.

“More than ever, ICE is choosing to detain everyone, regardless of their medical history, regardless of whether they can obtain the medical care they need in ICE custody, and regardless of how unsafe detention conditions would be for them,” the Florence Project said in a statement.

The American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch and other organizations filed a lawsuit at the end of May denouncing the conditions at El Paso's Camp East Montana, located  Fort Bliss military base, where measles cases were reported in March. The suit against ICE and DHS lists various ACLU-documented violations, including “severe medical neglect and disease outbreaks, including a months-long measles outbreak that infected at least 14 people.”

“I'm afraid that we're becoming, as a society, a little numb to the fact that someone else was killed, that people who have the right to due process are now self-deporting,” Grijalva said. “The goal is to break people down. Cruelty is the point.”

On July 22, six confirmed exposure locations across Maricopa County were announced, including densely populated sites like Chase Field and Chandler Mall. According to the U.S. measles tracker from Johns Hopkins University, Arizona now ranks sixth-highest in the U.S. for measles cases in 2026, with 119 total infections reported this year and 11 in the past two weeks. In 2025, the university tracked a total of 222 cases.

The same dataset shows that 95% of measles infections nationwide occurred among unvaccinated individuals, reinforcing the positive relationship between MMR vaccination and public health outcomes.

“Believe in science. Make sure that your family and yourselves are protected from this incredibly preventable disease that is incredibly contagious and can harm a lot of people,” Grijalva said. “It's our responsibility, for those of us who can, [to get vaccinated] in order to protect our neighbors.”

River Graziano is a freelance journalist for CALÓ News. They grew up in the Ahwatukee area of Phoenix and later attended ASU in Tempe, where they spent two years as an editor at The State Press. Their reporting with CALÓ News covers advocacy efforts impacting Latine communities across the Valley.