Early Tuesday morning, a deadly fire engulfed a migrant processing center at Ciudad Juárez, in Mexico. Local reports said at least 39 people died in the blaze, and dozens more were left injured. The facility is located near the Stanton International Bridge, linking Ciudad Juarez to El Paso, Texas. As reported by as Breitbart News, Ciudad Juarez, is one of the border towns where undocumented migrants wait before trying to cross into the U.S.
According to the Daily Mail, authorities have not yet released official reports, the El Diario and El Heraldo, have also reported that at least 37 people were killed. Believed to have been evacuated from the area and taken to local hospitals for treatment, were another 40 people. Expected to grow throughout the day, local government rescue sources, told Reuters news agency of the estimated death toll.
Reportedly, fire broke out shortly before midnight, in a section dedicated to “men only”, prompting the mobilization of firefighters and dozens of ambulances. Paramedics and first responders carried injured migrants to safety and transported them to local hospitals. No official statement about what may have caused the blaze has been disclosed, but local newspapers reported there had been a disturbance inside the center just before the fire.
Helping the injured to safety from inside a building at the National Migration Institute, video footage from the scene showed soldiers and firefighters working tirelessly to rescue the injured. In the same footage bodies can be seen lying under shimmery silver sheets outside the immigration center.
According to the BBC-
“Sixty-eight men from Central and South America were inside the INM-run centre ,when the fire broke out shortly before 22:00 local time…. Local media say the migrants inside the building where the blaze happened had been picked up by the authorities on Monday and taken to the centre. Many of the victims are thought to be Venezuelans trying to make their way to the United States…Ciudad Juárez, …has seen an influx of people in recent weeks. Many migrants have been heading to the southern border of the United States in expectation of an end to Title 42, a policy which gives the US government the power to quickly expel migrants trying to cross its border.”
-BBC
First implemented, at the start of the COVID pandemic, Title 42, which effectively allows US border officials to deny individuals entry to the US "to prevent the spread of communicable disease" was enacted by the Trump administration. It currently also continues as a means of holding the line on illegal immigration. However, the Biden Administration has announced its intention to end the use of the policy. For now it remains in place. The number of migrants in Ciudad Juárez, awaiting the possible lifting of the restrictions has swelled since the announcement.
“Part of the problem is there are people in Washington, D.C. in positions of power to whom the border is just a nuisance, and I think some of them believe that illegal immigration is a moral good. It is not. It undermines legal immigration.”
-John Kennedy