Nearly 40 people died after a fire broke out at a migrant center near the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday.
According to the NBC News, migrants at a center run by the National Migration Institute in Ciudad Juarez placed mattresses against the bars of their detention cells and set them on fire as part of a protest. The fire reportedly began at around 9 p.m. on Monday. The migrants in the center had reportedly been detained.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reportedly said that the fire began “after, we think, they found out they’d be deported.” He added that the migrants “didn’t imagine this would cause this misfortune.”
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 30, 2023
Mexican prosecutors said they have identified eight people who may be responsible for the deaths of 39 men in a fire at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juarez, and that the case was being investigated as a possible homicide https://t.co/vhD8JLx8MG pic.twitter.com/PNQl9DUINr
According to BBC, Mexican officials said that 68 men were in the facility at the time of the blaze. The majority of them came from Guatemala, while the others came from Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras and Venezuela.
Associated Press noted that hundreds of Venezuelan migrants arrived in Ciudad Juarez and attempted to force their way across one of the international bridges to El Paso, Texas.
In a White House press conference this week, National Security Council coordinator John Kirby claimed that the fire “underscores why President Biden is working so hard on trying to open up more legal pathways for people to come into the United States.”
Biden spokesman John Kirby says the tragic fire at a Mexican migrant center "underscores why President Biden is working so hard on trying to open up more legal pathways for people to come into the United States" pic.twitter.com/yHAU9QLJMY
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 29, 2023
NPR noted that authorities announced that they would seek at least four arrest warrants for the fire, including one for a migrant in the center who was part of a group that ignited it. Reportedly, the migrant damaged a security camera inside the cell where the fire occurred.