AURORA | Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser sued the GEO Group on Wednesday, seeking to force the private GEO Group that operates the Aurora ICE detention center to comply with a state public health order requiring the jail to release details about a confirmed tuberculosis case at the facility.

The lawsuit, filed in Adams County District Court, comes after GEO failed to meet an Aug. 17 deadline set by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to provide medical information, potential contacts and records of detainee discharges and transfers needed for the state’s investigation.

The state health department issued the order Aug. 13 after repeated requests for information from GEO, according to Weiser’s office.

The lawsuit asks a judge to issue an injunction requiring the company to comply.

“The GEO Group is endangering Coloradans’ public health by refusing to follow the state health department’s order and by violating Colorado law,” Weiser said in a statement. “We will continue to defend Colorado law and ensure that no company flouts our public health and safety laws.”

Tuberculosis is an airborne bacterial disease that can be treated with antibiotics but can be fatal if left untreated. State law requires public health officials to investigate confirmed or suspected cases of active tuberculosis, identify people who may have been exposed and offer treatment as appropriate.

The lawsuit is the latest escalation in a dispute that began after Adams County health officials confirmed a tuberculosis case involving a person at the 1,500-person facility in June.

The Adams County Health Department issued a public health order to seek information June 25, three days after the county confirmed the case. After GEO failed to provide information, state health officials began their own investigation into the potential spread of tuberculosis, according to the attorney general’s office and previous state announcements

State officials say they have been unable to independently determine who may have been exposed or whether those people received appropriate testing, evaluation and follow-up care.

After the county and state health departments pressed GEO to comply with information requests, the prison sued the state in federal court, saying that the detention facility had been singled out by state lawmakers.

Suing over House Bill 26-1276 passed this year, the law requires more frequent health and safety inspections inside immigration detention centers and allows the state to impose civil penalties for noncompliance.

“This (case) isn’t about the general background of public health laws. This isn’t about creating a new inspection authority. This is about a state’s attempt to directly and specifically regulate, through targeted legislation, a single facility in the state,” Fred Yarger, one of GEO’s lawyers, told U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Domenico during a hearing Aug. 2, as reported by Colorado Newsline.

On Wednesday, Democrats U.S. Rep. Jason Crow and Sen. Michael Bennet joined fellow Democratic members of the state’s congressional delegation in calling on GEO to comply with the state and county orders.

“Public health officials need full transparency – not summary statements – to investigate because this threatens the safety of detained individuals, facility staff, and our surrounding community,” the lawmakers said in a letter to GEO Group Chairman George Zoley.

They said GEO’s refusal to provide the requested information has prevented state and local officials from independently verifying that people potentially exposed to tuberculosis were identified and appropriately treated or monitored.

Crow’s office said its staff conducted its latest oversight visit to the facility Aug. 14. During that visit, facility staff said there were no current active tuberculosis cases, according to Crow’s office.

Congressional staff also observed eight people being monitored in the medical section but said ICE and GEO did not explain why those people were being monitored.

The latest developments follow concerns raised publicly in July, when Crow and state and local health officials said GEO had not provided all the information needed to investigate the tuberculosis case.

At the time, an ICE spokesperson said the facility had no confirmed active tuberculosis cases as of July 15 and said ICE and GEO were complying with federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines as well as Colorado law and policies concerning communicable diseases.

Colorado health officials also said then that GEO had told them there were no active cases but had not provided enough information to explain how it reached that conclusion.

The current dispute centers not on whether the facility has an active tuberculosis case but on whether GEO has provided the records and other information health officials say they need to complete their investigation as to who was exposed and where those people are now.

Weiser’s office said GEO responded to the Aug. 13 state order by directing state health officials to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The state said GEO did not claim it lacked the requested information or that a federal agency had prohibited the company from providing it.

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