JUAREZ, Mexico – A fire in a dormitory at a Mexican immigration detention center in Juárez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, left 39 migrants dead and another 29 injured, according to authorities. It is one of the deadliest incidents ever at an immigration lockup facility in the country.
The fire broke out Monday evening at the Lerdo station of the National Institute of Migration as tensions reached a boiling point with Mexican immigration officials. The blaze was set by migrants as a form of protest over deportation fears. Detained individuals reportedly ignited stacked mattresses at the entrance of the facility after learning they would be sent back to their countries of origin, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday morning, the El Paso Times reported.
However, investigators are looking into why Mexican officials were apparently slow to put out the flames. Some migrants were unable to escape the building as they were described as “detained” and ended up dying of smoke inhalation, reported El Diario de Juarez.
“This had to do with a protest that they started,” Obrador explained. “We assume that they found out that they were going to be deported, mobilized and as a protest at the door of the shelter they put up mattresses and set them on fire and they did not imagine that this was going to cause this terrible disgrace.”
Officials confirmed 39 migrants died and another 29 were injured and considered in “delicate-serious” condition, the El Paso Times reported.
About 68 migrants, mostly Venezuelan men and some Central Americans, were rounded up Monday, after Mexican authorities in Ciudad Juarez, the city directly across the border from El Paso, have become increasingly hostile to asylum-seekers, reported El Diario de Juarez.
Local residents said the migrants have become a nuisance, often lingering in the streets, according to the Mexican news outlet.
As a result, the migrants were gathered together and housed at the migrant center — just feet away from the international boundary — where they were to be taken to destinations like Mexico City or deported altogether from Mexico.
Daniel Silva, of Venezuela, said he didn’t believe the official version of events, that officials couldn’t put out a fire started by the migrants themselves, reported the El Paso Times.
“Why would they leave a jail alone? They can’t leave detained people alone,” he said.
According to the New York Post, officials were still working to identify the dead Tuesday morning.
