The head of the National Institute of Migration, Francisco Garduño, leaving the federal courts in Ciudad Juárez, in April 2023.Luis Torres (EFE)
The head of the immigration authority in Mexico is now facing criminal charges for the tragedy in Ciudad Juárez, in which at least 40 migrants died and dozens more were injured.
Francisco Garduño, commissioner of the National Institute of Migration (INM), appeared this Tuesday before a control judge of the border city and was formally charged with improper exercise of public service after the fire at an immigration station on March 27.
Garduño is the highest-ranking official who has had to answer to justice.
Garduño was expected to receive the formal accusation since April 21, but his lawyers requested a postponement to be able to review the investigation folder.
The Attorney General of the Republic (FGR) announced on April 11 that it was going to proceed against the head of the INM, the institution responsible for the immigration station where the victims died after the fire broke out and the custodians did not let them out.
This is the greatest tragedy that has occurred in a migration center under the custody of the Mexican State.
"I come to a hearing," Garduño said upon arriving at the court.
He did not make any further statements to the media before the hearing.
The FGR assured a couple of weeks ago that Garduño engaged in "alleged criminal conduct, by failing to comply with his obligations to monitor, protect and provide security to the people and facilities under his charge, promoting the crimes committed against migrants."
At the prosecution hearing, a federal prosecutor declared that the center where the fire occurred did not meet the conditions to house the migrants and that Garduño had access to this information, but was ignored, the newspaper La Verdad de Juárez reported
.
.
The official refrained from testifying before the control judge, according to the first reports.
The crime of improper exercise of functions carries punishments ranging from one to seven years in prison, according to the Federal Penal Code.
The head of the INM took office in June 2019, after the resignation of his predecessor Tonatiuh Guillén.
His resignation came after the Donald Trump Administration threatened the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador with a tariff war if it did not toughen its immigration policy.
Garduño's management has been marked by this turn, in which the National Guard, a militarized body of Public Security, has played a leading role in stopping migratory flows from Central America and the rest of the continent.
The head of Migration has not attended any session of the commission created by the Government of López Obrador to coordinate migration policy, according to an investigation by EL PAÍS.
The committee has only met eight times in four years and was at the center of the confrontation between Marcelo Ebrard,
the Secretary of Foreign Relations, and Adán Augusto López, of the Interior.
The INM depends on the portfolio of López, who has not appeared at any of the meetings either.
After the fire and the citizen and opposition claims to clarify the distribution of responsibilities, Garduño has had few public appearances.
The Senate requested a couple of days after the tragedy to give an appearance to explain what had gone wrong and what state the country's reception system was in.
In full political ferment, the official issued a statement in which he said that he was willing to collaborate with the investigations.
López Obrador backed Garduño and refused to let him drop from his post until the investigations were concluded.
“I have known him for many years.
They are upright and hard-working people, but our criteria is not to protect anyone if they commit any irregularity or crime.
I don't protect anyone, ”said the president at his daily press conference.
The president confirmed a couple of weeks ago that there was an investigation against the official and promised that there would be no impunity after the tragedy.
Avaaz activists stick up posters during a demonstration at the INM headquarters in Mexico City. José Méndez (EFE)
Rear Admiral Salvador González Guerrero, the INM delegate in Chihuahua, the state where Ciudad Juárez is located, was arrested last week in connection with investigations into the case.
González Guerrero and three other officials had an arrest warrant for illegal exercise of public service, intentional homicide and injuries.
The Secretary of Public Security, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, said at the end of March that the Government had identified eight possible perpetrators: three officials, five private security guards who were hired to support surveillance of the center and at least one migrant.
Garduño was not on that list and it was not until the FGR announced that he was going to go higher in the chain of command, that it was confirmed that he was also designated.
“This unfortunate event is the responsibility of well-identified public servants and guards.
It's not a political issue," Rodríguez said, insisting that Mexico's immigration management was "attached to human rights."
Five suspects were linked to the process a week after the events: immigration agents Daniel, Rodolfo and Gloria "N";
the private guard Alan “N”, and the Venezuelan immigrant Jaison “N”, indicated as the person who started the fire.
"I am innocent," Jaison wrote in a letter to his family leaked to the press.
His lawyer said that he was a guard who gave the migrants cigarettes and a lighter to light the mats,
In total, around 68 immigrants were trapped in the smoke and flames of the immigration station in Ciudad Juárez, which was used as a detention center for foreigners without papers.
Those who escaped from the fire denounced the overcrowding, the lack of water and food, extortion at the hands of agents, smuggling, raids and the inaction of the guards.
"They were not able to open a gate," Rodríguez lamented at the time.
Almost a month after the fire, Mexico is still looking for answers.
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