A fire at the facilities of the National Migration Institute in Ciudad Juárez killed at least 37 people in the early hours of Tuesday morning, a Chihuahuan government source has confirmed. The same source attributes the accident to a burning mattress. “It’s a tragedy,” he told EL PAÍS. The victims are migrants who were held in the facilities of the federal headquarters. They had been arrested earlier that day in the border town and were apparently in locked rooms, according to this source. There are at least 10 other people seriously injured.
This Monday, agents from the National Migration Institute arrested more than 70 people in Ciudad Juárez over alleged riots on public roads. They were later installed in several cells on the left side of the building owned by the federal government. A state source has pointed out that it was the migrants themselves who “set fire to the mats that the building has as a sign of protest and spread the fire”. The first images show dozens of bodies piled outside the building, which sits on the Stanton-Lerdo International Bridge. Both the fire department and the National Guard were there to tend to the victims. The public prosecutor’s office took over the investigation.
Rescue workers next to several bodies after the fire at a National Institute of Migration (INM) center in Ciudad Juárez on Mexico’s northern border JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ (Portal) Health workers transfer an injured person after the fire in Ciudad Juárez , this Tuesday. JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ (Portal) Health workers transfer an injured person after the fire JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ (Portal) Viangly, a Venezuelan migrant, cries next to an ambulance transporting her husband JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ (Portal) Rescue workers transfer aa refugee after the fire. JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ (Portal) Several bodies remain on the ground following the fire at the facilities of the National Institute of Migration (INM) in Ciudad Juárez. Luis Torres (EFE) Rescuers accompany the fire at the facilities of the National Institute for Migration (INM) in Ciudad Juárez.Luis Torres (EFE)
Ciudad Juárez has become a pressure cooker with the arrival of numerous groups of migrants trying to cross the north or seeking asylum in Mexico in the meantime. The region is experiencing a record migration flow, with 2.76 million people arrested at the US-Mexico border in 2022. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the flow of migrants into Mexican territory increased by 8%. Last December, every immigration record was shattered: US border officials arrested 251,487 people, an average of more than 8,000 people a day. In the same month, but in 2019, it was just 40,000.
Of those detainees, according to the Customs and Border Control Office (CBP), 202,000 were given what is known as Title 8, allowing them to be deported to their countries of origin, and the remainder, nearly 50,000, were sent to Mexico under the controversial Title 42. That old policy , revived by Donald Trump, allows foreign nationals, including asylum seekers, to be turned away on grounds of health, in this case the coronavirus pandemic. A pretext rejected by human rights organizations and one that the Biden administration has not yet withdrawn.
In that regard, on Jan. 5, Biden announced the implementation of a new program to issue 30,000 concessions each month to migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua after Mexico became a tight security space and came under pressure from Republican states. However, these visas, designed to prevent land crossings, can only be applied for if you are entering the country by air and have not attempted to cross the border illegally. Meanwhile, thousands of migrants are stranded in Mexico, with no way of accessing these permits and without being granted asylum in the country.
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