The government of Louisiana has initiated legal action against Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency over a recent incident involving a Chinese national with a rare, drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill announced on October 23 that this individual was detained in a state facility, potentially exposing over 200 detainees and staff to the high-risk disease.
Despite efforts by Louisiana officials to prevent the spread of tuberculosis, ICE insisted on detaining the undocumented immigrant until they passed a health examination by the state health department. Landry remarked, “This time we avoided a crisis; through the judicial system, we ensured the continued protection of the public.”
The lawsuit alleges that the individual entered California illegally from the southern border in July, was flown to Alexandria, Louisiana, alongside hundreds of other detainees, and subsequently transferred between several facilities before returning to the Richwood detention center. Despite showing symptoms of tuberculosis, some detainees were released from the ICE processing center in Basile, Louisiana, in August, potentially exposing them to the general public.
Among the 174 detainees who came into contact with the infected individual, 60 have already been deported, transferred, or released from the Basile facility.
State health officials received positive test results from these individuals on October 9. The Basile jail isolated the dormitory where the Chinese national stayed and conducted drug-resistant tuberculosis tests on the detainees in that area, with all results returning negative.
Ralph Abraham, the state health department head, stated that the individual is the only reported case in Louisiana of a highly drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis. He noted that the individual has received “good treatment” and is currently “asymptomatic,” although still under medical care.
Landry, reflecting on his tenure as Attorney General, warned that “open borders with significant gaps are allowing individuals carrying diseases, which U.S. health officials have worked hard to eliminate, to enter the country. We have witnessed increases in measles and mumps cases, and now we are confronted with rare tuberculosis.”
Murrill added that the Biden administration’s border policies have placed the health and safety of Americans at risk.
