‘SERIOUS CRIME’

Mexico Opens Homicide Investigation After 39 Killed in Migrant Detention Center Fire

Survivors of the blaze said dozens of people were locked in their cells as the flames spread.

Prosecutors in Mexico on Wednesday opened a homicide investigation into the fire at a migrant detention center that left 39 people dead. The blaze late Monday in Ciudad Juarez, just south of the U.S. border, was captured by security camera footage which appeared to show detained men trying to kick open a gate inside the facility as it filled with smoke, with uniformed people in the frame not helping the men to open the door. Mexican Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez said five members of a private security company, two federal agents, and a state migration officer have been identified by prosecutors as potentially responsible for the deaths. “Who didn’t let these people out? Clearly there is a serious crime. They weren’t capable of opening a gate,” Rodriguez said at a news conference, adding that the shocking video was not part of the investigation.