Ciudad Juarez, Mexico immigration facility fire kills 39: official

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Migrants fearing deportation set fire to mattresses at a Mexican immigration center, causing a fire that killed 39 people, the Mexican president said on Tuesday.

This was one of the worst incidents at an immigration facility in the country.

Hours after a fire broke out late Monday, a line of bodies was laid out under a gleaming silver sheeting outside a facility in Ciudad Juarez, Texas, across from El Paso, a major immigration crossroads. rice field. Ambulances, firefighters and vans from the morgue swarmed the scene.

Thirty-nine people were killed and 29 were injured, according to the National Institute of Migration. rice field.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called the incident unfortunate and said the head of the country’s immigration department was at the scene.

“They never imagined this would cause this terrible misfortune,” Lopez Obrador said.

Tensions between authorities and migrants appear to have increased in Ciudad Juarez in recent weeks. Shelters are filled with people awaiting the opportunity to enter the United States or those who have applied for asylum and are awaiting processing.

More than 30 migrant shelters and other advocacy groups issued an open letter on March 9 calling for the criminalization of immigrants and asylum seekers in the city. It accused authorities of ill-treatment and the use of excessive force in rounding up immigrants, and accused city police of unreasonably interrogating them on the streets about their immigration status.

Frustration high in Ciudad Juarez it was clear Earlier this month, hundreds of mostly Venezuelan migrants, acting on false rumors that the United States would allow them to enter Venezuela, attempted to cross one of the international bridges to El Paso. blocked.

The National Immigration Service said Tuesday it “strongly rejects the actions that led to this tragedy” and has no further explanation as to what those actions were.

In recent years, the institution has struggled with overcrowding as Mexico, under pressure from the U.S. government, stepped up efforts to stem the flow of migrants to the U.S. border. There have also been occasional protests and riots at immigration facilities in the country.

In October, most Venezuelan migrants rioted inside an immigration center in Tijuana and had to be controlled by the police and the National Guard. In November, dozens of migrants rioted at Mexico’s largest detention center in the southern city of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala. No one died in either incident.