A fire that killed 39 migrants who were about to be deported from Ciudad Juarez highlights the increasing tension over Mexico’s continued crackdown on migrants aiming to reach the U.S.
The incident on Monday night, one of the deadliest in recent history at the Mexico-U.S. border, was provoked by Venezuelan and Central American migrants in a facility in the city bordering Texas, said President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday morning. The fire was started slightly before 10 p.m. in the male-only center for adults, the National Immigration Institute said in a statement.
“This had to do with a protest that they started when they realized that they were going to be deported, moved, and as a protest they put cots in the door of the shelter and they set them on fire,” said AMLO, as the president is known, at a press briefing. “It’s very sad that this has happened.”
