The United States government ordered the lockdown of a migrant family detention center in Texas, where a measles outbreak threatens to overwhelm local health authorities.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed this weekend two cases of meals at the center, where at least 400 minors are being held, according to local media reports.

The government reported that it has already taken steps to quarantine the center and prevent the spread of the virus, "halting all movement within the center and isolating those who may have come into contact with the infected individuals," according to DHS statements to The Hill.

The measles outbreak, one of the most contagious viruses in existence, has raised alarms among health professionals in Texas. In a letter to state and local health officials, Lee Rogers, chief of podiatry at the University of Texas at San Antonio, called for a public health emergency to be declared. The situation at the facility “is more serious than a typical outbreak because congregate confinement creates a near-universal risk of exposure,” the doctor wrote in the letter, “this has the potential to rapidly overwhelm local health resources.” Even with modern medical care, the doctor explained, measures cause considerable morbidity: “1 in 5 people who contract the virus require hospitalization, and between 1 and 3 out of every 1,000 infected children die from respiratory or neurological complications.” Authorities in Texas, including Governor Greg Abbott, have not yet commented on this infectious outbreak. The Dilley facility is one of only two centers nationwide where the federal government detains entire migrant families, a practice that has been paused. for several years during the term of former President Joe Biden (2021-2025) and which has been summarized by Trump in his campaign to accelerate the arrests and deportations of migrants. Currently, approximately 1,400 migrants, including around 400 minors, remain detained at the center, according to information released this week by Democratic legislators.The news of the outbreak in Dilley comes a day after at least 100 people protested outside the center to demand an end to the detention of migrant families, following the release of Liam Ramos, a five-year-old boy detained with his father in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and later transferred to the southern state. The detention of migrant children in the US increased sharply during the first year of Donald Trump's administration. According to the Deportation Data Project, between January and October of this year, an average of 170 children were arrested each month, compared to 25 during the last 16 months of the Biden administration. In total, migrant arrests in the US have reached a record level: in January, the US held more than 73,000 migrants in custody, the highest figure since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2001, according to data leaked to CBS News. Last year was the deadliest in at least two decades for people in ICE custody, with more than 30 deaths, and so far in 2016, at least three deaths have already been reported inside migrant detention centers. EFEEFE