At the immigration office
According to the government, 39 people died in a fire at a building of the national immigration authority, INM, in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez. The cause of the fire is still open.
03.28.2023 10.12
Online since today, 12:10 pm (Update: 1:05 pm)
The INM regrets the deaths of 39 migrants so far by the fire, the government specifically said. US broadcaster CNN reported on Tuesday that the nationalities were still unclear. Several other people were also injured.
The newspaper “Milenio” confirmed the Public Ministry of Chihuahua at least 27 dead, most of them refugees. At least 25 bodies lay covered in the street in front of the building, wrote the newspaper El Diario de Juarez.
Fire after escape of fugitives
According to the media, the fire allegedly broke out in the building on Monday night, after authorities arrested about 70 migrants who were on the streets of the city. According to “Milenio”, there were also children and young people who sold sweets in the streets and asked for money.
INM officials also checked the asylum status of foreign adults. The undocumented migrants were taken to the immigration office to begin the process of returning to their countries of origin.
Hope for Asylum in the US
Ciudad Juarez, in northern Mexico, directly borders the city of El Paso, in the US state of Texas. It is one of the places where countless people from Central and South America try to reach the US every day. Many stay in the city for months, if not years, hoping to gain asylum in the United States.
Every year, tens of thousands of people from Central and South America try to flee violence and poverty in their home countries for the US. In January alone, US authorities arrested more than 128,000 people trying to enter the US illegally through Mexico.