Chickenpox outbreak reported at Tacoma prison for migrants

TACOMA, Wash.  — A U.S. congressman says he was turned away from trying to meet with detainees from the southern border crisis because of a chickenpox outbreak at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.

The Tacoma News Tribune reports that U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, a Democrat, went to the prison Saturday after hearing that a number of migrants who were separated from their children after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border were transferred there from another federal prison in SeaTac.

Kilmer said he had official tours set up at both facilities but that it was canceled due to protest-related safety concerns.

And when the congressman tried to visit three detainees during the regularly scheduled visiting hours on Saturday, he was told that they were all quarantined due to chickenpox exposure.