Mexico’s president said the fire began during a protest at the facility.
A fire broke out at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Monday, killing at least 38 people, officials said.
The blaze began as the result of a protest by people being held in the facility, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico said in a morning press conference. Protestors lit a mattress on fire inside the building, after some at the facility were informed they’d be deported, Obrador said.
“We do not yet know the names and nationalities of those who lost their lives,” he said, adding that they were mainly from Central America.
The Mexican National Institute of Migration (INM) said Tuesday night there were 38 people confirmed dead. The INM had previously said 40 people died in the fire.
In a tweet Tuesday night, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the people responsible for the fire have been brought before the Mexican attorney general.
Mexican authorities and firefighters remove injured migrants from inside the National Migration Institute building during a fire, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, March 27, 2023.
Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters
The fire started at about 10 p.m. on Monday evening at the Instituto Nacional de Migración, Mexico’s Institute of Migration said early Tuesday. Sixty-eight men from Central and South America had been housed in the facility at the time of the fire, officials said.
Children from Venezuela watch as Mexican authorities and firefighters remove injured migrants from inside the National Migration Institute building during a fire, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico March 27, 2023.
Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters
The dead were all migrants, according to the statement. Another 28 people were injured, some seriously, and were transferred to four local hospitals, authorities said.
The center is in an area across the border from El Paso, Texas, and is close to the Puente Internacional Lerdo Stanton bridge.
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.
