Legionella, the waterborne bacteria that can lead to the deadly Legionnaires’ disease, has been found at a federal building in Baltimore where illegal immigrants are kept in short-term detention, according to members of Congress who demanded answers Friday.
The George H. Fallon Federal Building, in addition to the migrant processing facility, houses offices for the Treasury, Justice and Veterans Affairs departments, plus a child care center.
The lawmakers said the General Services Administration, the government’s landlord agency, detected the bacteria in November. Despite treatment, the bacteria is still present, the lawmakers said in a letter to GSA while contending the agency hasn’t been forthcoming to building tenants.
“The presence of these bacteria, and the lack of clear direction from GSA, poses a serious health and safety threat for all users of the Fallon Building,” Maryland’s nine Democrats in Congress said in their letter.
They called for “immediate remediation” and asked for all the testing data, treatment schedules and steps taken to alert building occupants.
The Washington Times has reached out to the GSA for comment.
Lawmakers were particularly troubled by the presence of Legionella in the day care and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement migrant processing facility.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, Maryland Democrat, visited the ICE facility last month and said it was shockingly overcrowded.
He described one room where 55 people were in a room he said shouldn’t have housed more than 15.
“People were just shoulder to shoulder; they sleep there on the ground,” he said.
GSA’s inspector general in 2023 warned that it detected Legionella in water sources in a half-dozen federal buildings.
Legionella is often present in water but at levels too low to be of concern. If it reaches elevated levels, it can cause Legionnaires’ disease, which is fatal in about 10% of cases.
Stagnant water can cause the conditions for elevated levels, and the inspector general, in that 2023 alert, said the pandemic shutdowns and telework policies, which left many government buildings empty, helped create that sort of environment in many buildings.
