Mexico: Fire at migrant detention centre kills dozens

More than three dozen asylum seekers died in a fire on Monday night at the National Migration Institute, an immigration detention centre in the border city of Ciudad Juárez near the Santa Fe International Bridge to El Paso, Texas. At least 39 people were killed and 29 others gravely injured - most of them Venezuelans.

The Catholic Hope Border Institute (El Instituto Fronterizo Esperanza) said in a statement: "We are horrified by the loss of dozens of lives last night in our border community. Each person has a name and is a child to someone, a sibling to someone, a friend to someone.

The Biden administration's increasingly aggressive posture on migration enforcement and deterrence first-strategies at the border have pressured Mexican authorities to stem migration in an already overcrowded and under-resourced system resulting in fatal tragedies such as the one we witnessed last night.

In the months following the Biden administration's expansion of Title 42, we have witnessed increased enforcement actions by Mexican authorities and the detention of persons in the facility where the fire broke out. Those who blame the victims of the fire obscure the fact these deaths are an indictment of the policies and structures implemented at large by both governments.

Through our Border Refugee Assistance Fund, we will continue our essential humanitarian support to migrant persons returned to Ciudad Juárez, who bear the weight of our unjust immigration policies, and we will continue to stand with vulnerable people on the move in advocating for a world where the cost of enforcement is no longer death."

Eyewitnesses report that staff left the centre after allowing women and children to get out. But most of male migrants were locked inside the enclosure and unable to escape.

During the General Audience in St Peter's Square, Pope Francis told Spanish speaking pilgrims: "Let's pray for the migrants who have perished in a tragic blaze in Ciudad Juarez, in Mexico. May the Lord receive them in His Kingdom and bring consolation to their families," he added asking those present to join him in prayer for them."

The Hope Border Institute (HOPE) brings the perspective of Catholic social teaching to bear on the realities unique to the US-Mexico border region. Through a robust program of research and policy work, leadership development and action, it works to build justice and deepen solidarity across the borderlands.

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Hope Border Institute: www.hopeborder.org