JUAREZ, Mexico (Border Report) – Advocates marked the anniversary of a fatal fire in a Juarez migrant detention station by demanding answers and calling for more humane policies at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Members of the Angeles Mensajeros collective on Wednesday placed flags, photographs and signs on the chain-link surrounding the building where the blaze broke out on March 27, 2023, killing 40 Central and South American nationals and leaving more than two dozen with serious injuries.
“We don’t want this international tragedy not to be forgotten. We are convinced Mexico and the United States can do more to bring justice and prevent other tragedies from happening,” said Carlos Mayorga, head of Angeles Mensajeros (Messenger Angels).
Detained migrants demanding to be released allegedly set mattresses on fire inside a cell holding more than 60 men. Smoke quickly filled the building and overcame the detainees. A surveillance video showed Mexican immigration agents and private security guards walking away from the locked cell.
A government investigation allegedly found insufficient and inoperable fire extinguishers in the building and lapses in the chain of custody of detainees and the keys to the cell. Eleven Mexican immigration agents and private security guards are facing criminal or administrative charges in connection with the deaths, but no convictions have been reported so far.
Mexico promised payments to survivors and families of the victims, but advocates say few have received any money.
“Restitution has only been made to the families of victims from Guatemala, but not to the ones from Honduras or El Salvador. We represent seven Salvadoran families who have received nothing, nor have any of the survivors,” said Blanca Navarrete, of Derechos Humanos Integrales en Accion, or DHIA.
Advocates in Juarez and in El Paso say binational migration policies must change to prevent further migrant deaths – whether in government custody, at the hands of criminals or while braving deserts, rivers and canals to avoid apprehension.
“More needs to be done to ensure everyone impacted by this horrific fire receives justice and can heal with dignity and hope,” said Crystal Sandoval, director of cross-border initiatives at Las Americas Immigrant and Advocacy Center in El Paso. “The conditions that led to this tragedy remain with us today. Thousands of people seeking safety are still stranded in Mexico because of the Biden administration’s asylum ban, and too many people still die at the border as they seek safety and opportunity.”
The so-called asylum ban refers to the May 2023 Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule directing asylum-seekers to an online application and showing up to appointments at ports of entry, as opposed to crossing the river or getting past the border wall between ports of entry.
Also, states like Texas have taken it upon themselves to try to arrest unauthorized migrants, a federal privilege that’s being argued in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
“By criminalizing the act of migration and relying on prisons to cut the flow of migration to the U.S.-Mexico border, we increase the risk of history repeating itself and our communities being forced to reckon with more traumatic events like this one (the fatal Juarez fire) in the future,” Sandoval said.
