The outbreak of measles in a county with a large foreign-born population is raising questions about whether the media and public health officials have correctly identified the outbreak’s source.
Media headlines are pointing fingers at the Mennonites in Gaines County for the outbreak of 146 known measles cases. The Associated Press published an article, picked up by CNN and The Texas Tribune, implying that the outbreak is due to this small Protestant Christian minority. Texas Department of State Health Services spokesperson Lara Anton reportedly shared a similar statement attributing the outbreak to a concentrated “close-knit, under-vaccinated” Mennonite community, AP reported.
Of note, Mennonite doctrine does not oppose vaccination. Only among the most “culturally conservative Mennonite (and Amish) groups” have there tended to be “under-immunized or partially-immunized” individuals, Steven Nolt, professor of history and Anabaptist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania told AP.
Referring to the people in Gaines County, Anton explained, “The church isn’t the reason that they’re not vaccinated.” Later, she added. “It’s all personal choice, and you can do whatever you want.”
This raises the question of what has caused or exacerbated the measles outbreak in Texas.
The measles vaccine was introduced in the early 1960s, and by 2000, the disease was declared “eliminated” by the CDC. However, measles has been an issue for illegal alien populations for years.
The CDC recorded a measles outbreak at a migrant shelter in Chicago in early 2024 and attributed it in part to “low measles vaccination coverage among shelter residents.” A total of 57 confirmed cases were reported during the outbreak.
A few months later, there was another measles outbreak at a migrant shelter in New York.
The CDC website has numerous pages establishing vaccination programs for “US-bound refugees.” The agency guidance recommends that healthcare providers screen new arrivals for the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine, given the prevalent undervaccination of many immigrants.
However, these programs would presumably have little effect on the vaccination status of illegal aliens who evade law enforcement upon entering the country, as often they seldom interact with a government agency or healthcare provider.
Around 25% of the country’s immigrants are illegal, according to Pew Research in 2024.
The latest available census data indicated that about a quarter of Gaine’s County’s roughly 20,000 residents are immigrants. However, the actual number of immigrants in Gaines County is unknown.
Gaines County is three to four hours from the border. In a 2023 paper, Census Bureau researchers stated, “The undocumented population is particularly difficult to enumerate in surveys, so coverage error can be high for that group.”
It is difficult to ascertain the total population of Mennonites in Texas in 2025. However, the Texas State Historical Association recorded that “more than 4,000 baptized members and many more non-baptized children and youth” spread throughout the state in the 2000s.
Notably, demographic data on the infectees has not been made available at the time of this writing.