Mexico's top immigration official to face charges in Juárez fire that killed 40 migrants
JUÁREZ, Mexico — Mexico's top immigration official is expected to face still-undisclosed charges in federal court in the deaths of 40 migrants in a detention center fire in this border city.
A federal judge on Friday postponed a hearing during which the exact charges against Francisco Garduño Yáñez, commissioner of Mexico's National Migration Institute, were to be announced. His defense attorneys requested the delay during the Juárez hearing, after saying they had received hundreds of case documents only minutes before.
"We don't know what charges the commissioner faces given the size of the file that was handed over and the fact that we just received it," said defense attorney Rodolfo Pérez Velasquez.
On March 27, a deadly fire ripped through an immigration station run by the institute in Juárez, where more than 60 men and 15 women were being held behind bars. Migrant men set fire to foam mattresses, allegedly to protest their prolonged detention and poor conditions.
More: 'They couldn't find the keys': How 40 migrants died in Juárez fire
The smoke and flames killed 40 men and injured more than two dozen others after National Migration Institute agents and private security guards were either unable or unwilling to open the men's cell block door, according to prosecutors. The men who died came from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador.
Five people have been indicted on homicide charges in the migrants' deaths, including three immigration agents, a private security guard and a Venezuelan migrant believed to have started the fire.
Garduño Yáñez — a political appointee of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — is the highest-ranking official to face criminal charges in the tragedy. He has served in government since the 1970s, including leading a committee for penitentiary reform in Mexico City.
As Garduño Yáñez left the white courthouse along busy Avenida Tecnológico in Juárez, he told reporters he was "doing his duty as a citizen and public servant" by showing up.
"Since I arrived in Ciudad Juárez, hours after the lamentable and painful incident, my first objective was to attend to the victims," he said, adding that he provided assistance to the families of the victims and facilitated the return of the dead to their countries of origin. "That's what I have done. I've been on top of it. I can't say more because I'm in a legal process."
The National Migration Institute is the Mexican federal agency tasked with executing the nation's immigration laws, including processing tourist and other visas. It also rescues, detains and deports migrants.
Lauren Villagran can be reached at lvillagran@elpasotimes.com, on Twitter @laurenvillagran and on Instagram @fronteravillagran.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Francisco Garduño Yáñez to face charges in Juárez fire
