Mexico immigration chief charged over detention centre fire that killed 40

Francisco Garduño will remain in his job as he awaits trail

The head of Mexico’s immigration agency will stand trial for his alleged oversight failure after 40 people died in a migrant fire at a detention centre in Ciudad Juarez in March.

Francisco Garduño will remain free and stay in his job for the time being, with the Associated Press reporting that his lawyers will seek an agreement to provide reparations to victims of the fire or their families.

Federal prosecutors from the Attorney General’s office argued in court this week that Mr Garduño, as the top-ranking immigration official in the country, and neglected his oversight duties in Ciudad Juarez despite the fact that he allegedly knew the city’s detention centre was not safe.

Prosecutors asked that Mr Garduño be removed from his job leading the Mexican Immigration Institute, but a judge denied that request and so Mr Garduño will continue in the role.

After a migrant was allegedly responsible for starting the fire in the Ciudad Juarez facility on 27 March, no one in a position of authority at the centre appeared to make an attempt to evacuate the migrants being held there, even though a holding cell where 68 people were detained was filling with smoke.

In addition to the 40 people who died in the fire, two dozen others were injured. Nineteen of the people who died were from Guatemala.

Now, the question is whether high-ranking government officials will be held accountable. Mr Garduño still enjoys the support of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who appointed him to the immigration post in 2019 at a time when Mexico was under pressure from then-US President Donald Trump to curb migration at the Mexico-US border.

Mr Garduño, a lawyer by training and longtime public servant, has a relationship with Mr Obrador dating back to when the president was serving as mayor of Mexico City. Mr Garduño took over after his predecessor, Tonatiuh Guillén, quit in protest of increasingly restrictive migration policies.

Mexico’s immigration agency has for years faced human rights and corruption complaints, including that migrant centres all too frequently have inadequate ventilation, along with issues over clean water and food.

Mr Garduño is not the only immigration official set to stand trial. Seven other officials have also been criminally charged for their role in the fire, with the immigration agency’s delegate in Chihuahua state facing homicide and injury by omission charges.

Mr Garduño, for his part, has been ordered to present himself in court every two weeks until his trial begins or his case is settled.