At least 40 people are killed by Blaze in an immigration detention facility along the US-Mexico border.

At least 40 people died on Monday night when a fire broke out at a government-run migrant detention center in Ciudad Juarez, a city in northern Mexico, on the United States border. The fire at the National Migration Institute (INM) facility started shortly after 10 p.m. after authorities picked up and detained a group of migrants from the streets of the border city. At least 28 Guatemalan nationals were among the dead, Guatemala's Institute of Migration confirmed. Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that the men detained at the center were angry at the officials, and had been demonstrating against their deportation.

Video recorded at the scene of the tragedy showed first responders aiding survivors, wrapping them in silver, thermal blankets, before placing them on stretchers and into ambulances. The deadly blaze has underlined the urgent situation in Mexican cities along the border, which have been inundated with migrants sent back from the US by a pandemic-era public health restriction.
The fire that occurred inside the INM detention center in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on Tuesday night left many migrants dead and injured. Mexican authorities have launched an investigation to determine who was responsible. An eyewitness to the blaze, Viangly Infante, blamed Mexican authorities and claimed the doors to the detention center were not opened. Her husband, 27-year-old Eduard Caraballo, was inside the detention center and survived by spraying water on himself. He was taken to the hospital with breathing problems.

Emilio Jose, who was looking for his wife, told Reuters that he was not being given any information regarding her whereabouts. The Mexican immigration agency (INM) strongly rejected the acts that led to the fire, and an investigation is underway. On Tuesday, the agency announced that migrants injured in the fire would be granted "visitor cards" which will allow them to obtain legal immigration status in Mexico valid for one year. The cards will be provided for humanitarian reasons and will cover medical requirements for a speedy recovery. Migrants who are unaccompanied minors, have witnessed a crime or been victim to a crime while in Mexico are eligible for a visitor card, according to the Mexican immigration agency.