Tuberculosis Outbreak, Protester Shooting at Colorado ICE Lockup
The federal immigration jail in Aurora, Colorado came under scrutiny in recent weeks due to both its unsanitary conditions that led to a tuberculosis outbreak as well as an incident in which a guard shot a protester at the facility’s entrance.
The tuberculosis outbreak at the Aurora jail has caused at least 12 detainees to contract the bacterial disease. According to The Guardian, in addition to the tuberculosis cases, dozens of other detainees were placed in quarantine. All of those held at the facility were forced to endure the isolation without air conditioning.
It is not currently known exactly how many people are locked up by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the jail, which has a capacity of 1,532 and is operated by the GEO Group, a private prison profiteer whose profits have grown substantially since President Donald Trump (R) returned to office last year. Conditions at the lockup have faced criticism before, such as when an alleged previous tuberculosis outbreak occurred there in April 2025.
A detainee in Aurora interviewed by The Guardian said that, after 88 people in the same pod were tested for tuberculosis, guards refused to separate those who tested negative from the 12 positive cases, opting to make them quarantine together. At the same time, the pod’s air conditioning broke down during a heat wave in which outside air temperatures reached 96 degrees Fahrenheit.
In addition to the tuberculosis epidemic, on July 16, 2026, GEO guard Brandon Booth, 42, brandished his personal firearm and shot at two protesters gathered outside of the ICE jail. The protests had blocked a handful of guards who were driving in from being able to enter the facility; the two protesters approached the guards who were now outside of their cars and began yelling expletives at them. Booth, who later told officials that this caused his anger level to reach “a 15 out of 10,” shot between the protesters, hitting one of them, a college student, in the foot.
Booth then returned to his vehicle and drove away, before being apprehended by a SWAT team. The guard was arrested and held at the Adams County Jail on $100,000 bond, according to The New York Times. He was fired from GEO Group and now faces seven counts, including first-degree assault.
Source: The Guardian
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