A fire at the facilities of the National Migration Institute in Ciudad Juárez has left at least 37 dead in the early hours of this Tuesday, as confirmed by a Chihuahua government source.
The same attribute the accident to a mattress burning.
"It's a tragedy," he told EL PAÍS.
The victims are migrants who were detained at the facilities of the federal center.
They had been arrested earlier that day in the border city and were apparently inside locked rooms, according to this source.
There are another 10 people seriously injured.
This Monday, agents from the National Migration Institute detained more than 70 people in Ciudad Juárez for alleged disturbances on public roads.
Later they were installed in several cells on the left side of the building, which depends on 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 the fire spread."
The first images show dozens of bodies piled up outside the building, which is located on the Stanton-Lerdo International Bridge.
Both firefighters and the National Guard have come to the scene to attend to the victims.
The Attorney General's Office has assumed the investigation.
Ciudad Juárez has become a pressure cooker with the arrival of numerous groups of migrants trying to cross north or, in the meantime, seek asylum in Mexico.
The region is experiencing a record migratory flow, with 2.76 million undocumented immigrants detained at the US-Mexico border in fiscal year 2022 and, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the migratory flow increased 8% in Mexican territory.
Last December, any immigration record was pulverized: US border agents detained 251,487 people, that is, on average, more than 8,000 people a day.
In the same month, but in 2019, there were barely 40,000.
Of these detainees, according to data from the Customs and Border Control Office (CBP), 202,000 received the so-called Title 8, which allows them to be deported to their countries of origin, and the rest, almost 50,000. , were sent to Mexico under the controversial Title 42. This old directive, which was revived by Donald Trump, allows the rejection of foreign citizens, including asylum seekers, alleging health reasons, in this case the coronavirus pandemic.
A pretext rejected by human rights organizations and that the Biden government has not yet withdrawn.
This measure has caused thousands of migrants to remain stranded in Mexico without the possibility of refuge or help.
In this context, with Mexico as a tense containment room and under pressure from the Republican States, with Texas at the helm, Biden announced on January 5 the implementation of a new program to grant 30,000 special permits to migrants from Venezuela each month. , Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua to enter the country by air.
Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS México newsletter and receive all the key information on current affairs in this country
