I’ve been reporting for months about the mumps epidemic particularly among Honduran migrants, but the government has finally officially released the information. CNN is reporting that there have been 297 confirmed cases of mumps in ICE holding facilities since last September. In 39 detention facilities, “5,200 detainees in quarantine across those centers, around 4,200 are for exposure to mumps. Around 800 were exposed to chicken pox and 100 have been exposed to both.”

The question few are asking is how many were released into our communities who were not detained or quarantined in ICE facilities but were carrying mumps nonetheless? Some are trying to suggest that the cause of the outbreak is unknown or that somehow it’s even the fault of ICE, as if these people were living in pristine conditions in Honduras until ICE crammed them into concentration camps where they contracted the disease. CNN, in the same paragraph that it admits “last September was the first time the agency recorded mumps cases,” goes on to suggest, “It's not clear where the disease derived from or how it spread.”

Obviously, absent media access to the bloodwork, we have no way of scientifically proving anything, but the key word lost on CNN’s reporter is “September.”

This is not some mystery. September was the month when the Honduran government declared a national health emergency over mumps. Shortly thereafter, the largest caravan left from the country with thousands of migrants coming with no access to health care or sanitary conditions. Most of the caravans left from San Pedro Sula, a northern Honduran town that had 1,336 reported cases of mumps as of April. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out where this is coming from.

While Guatemala was the number one sending country for the past several years, in recent months, since the growth of organized caravans, Hondurans have overtaken Guatemalans as the number one source of illegal immigration. For example, based on the numbers I’ve seen from the first week of June in Texas, there were 33 percent more Hondurans than Guatemalans apprehended, even though last year and in the early part of this fiscal year there were many more Guatemalans. This is why there are now 51 confirmed cases of mumps in Hidalgo County, Texas, which just happens to be the most trafficked border county. And it now has the largest mumps outbreak in America.

Therefore, now that we established it’s inconceivable that this was not driven by the source in Honduras and did not originate in the ICE facilities, there is no reason why those in custody were more susceptible to it than those released without ever going into custody. In fact, the overwhelming majority of those in ICE custody are single adults, while those with kids are being released, often within hours. Mumps is more prevalent among kids.

Over 204,000 illegal aliens have been released into the country since December 21, 2018. Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan admitted that “100 percent” of family units are being released, many of them directly without ever entering an ICE facility. McAleenan also testified that “family units are released into our communities with unknown vaccination status and without a standard medical examination for communicable diseases of public health concern.” We also know that according to the Homeland Security Advisory Council report, “73% of the children in FMUs illegally crossing our border are tender aged, being 12 or younger.”

(For the full story, read my four-part series on the threat of diseases at the border here, here, here, and here.)

Why is the government placing Americans in danger? There is no way mumps is not being spread outside ICE facilities. For this reason alone, the president has the authority to shut off all migration requests and turn back every family unit at the border or at least refuse to allow them to cross a quarantine line.

Also, what about American doctors and nurses working in strained border town hospitals being exposed to these people? What about the border agents? Vice President of the National Border Patrol Council Chris Cabrera said that a number of agents are calling in sick because they came into contact with lice, scabies, pneumonia, tuberculosis, measles, mumps, the chicken pox, endless strains of the flu, and aggressive chest colds.

Once again, who in our government is asking: At what point do the concerns of Americans matter more than the aspirations of illegal aliens?