Correction: Rodents-Fleas-Illegals—>Plague
Not really.
“The modern pandemic began in southwest China in the latter part of the 19th century, and spread to Canton and Hong Kong by 1894. From Hong Kong the disease was carried by rats on ships to Calcutta and Bombay by 1896, and to San Francisco in 1899. It eventually reached every continent except Antarctica. The modern pandemic did not produce the tremendous mortality and social chaos associated with the previous two pandemics, but it did result in an expansion of the natural distribution of plague to include North America. It was also during this time that the etiologic agent of plague, the bacteria Yersinia pestis, was identified, and transmission by fleas was proven.
B. History of urban plague in the U.S. æ Plague was introduced into urban rat populations of several port cities around the turn of the century, including San Francisco, Seattle, New Orleans, Galveston and Pensacola, resulting in hundreds of human plague cases. In most of these cities only domestic rat populations became infected; rat and flea control contained the disease and stopped its spread.
C. Establishment of natural plague foci in the U.S. æ Plague spread from domestic rats in the San Francisco Bay area to California ground squirrels and their fleas by 1908 and continued to spread through wild rodents, rabbits and carnivores throughout the West. Plague was first detected in New Mexico in prairie dogs from Catron County in 1938; plague has been detected in wild rodents and their fleas as far east as Central Kansas and Dallas, Texas.
D. Human plague in New Mexico æ The first three cases were reported in 1949; the total through 2007 is 255, of which 33 (13%) were fatal. Since 1970, slightly more than half of U.S. cases have been reported from New Mexico. Most of the remaining cases come from Arizona, Colorado and California. Although plague in wild animals or their fleas has been found in every New Mexico county except one (Hidalgo), 207 of 255 human cases (81%) have occurred in seven northern N.M. counties (Bernalillo, McKinley, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe and Taos).”
https://nmhealth.org/publication/view/guide/998/
Correction to your correction. The plague was introduced to the United States via international trade in the 1890s. Infected rats on steamships were the carriers. The first documented human case showed up in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1900. After that, cases showed up in Seattle, Portland, Galveston, and New Orleans as traded expanded along the west coast and into the Gulf of Mexico.