On Thursday, six people linked to 39 unlawful migrants who died in a fire at a detention facility in Ciudad Juarez had warrants issued for their arrest.
Three National Immigration Institute officials, two private security guards, and the man who allegedly started the fire had warrants issued for their arrest, according to the Associated Press.
Five of the six had already been arrested for alleged homicide charges and causing injuries.
Dozens of people were injured in the fire, which was apparently started by an unlawful migrant who lit a mattress on fire on Monday, March 27. Many are still hospitalized, with injuries ranging from serious to critical, and at least one has been discharged from a local hospital.
Video from inside the detention facility appeared to show guards walking away from the fire when it was started without making any attempt to render aid to those in the cells.
A complaint was filed Wednesday with federal investigators from the Mexican federal attorney general’s office. The complaint maintained that the state’s top immigration official knew about the fire.
Jose Vázquez Campbell, the lawyer who filed the complaint, said Salvador González Guerrero, the Chihuahua state delegate for the National Immigration Institute, “gave the order by way of a phone call that under no circumstances should the migrants ‘housed’ inside the place where the fire started be released.”
Campbell said one of the detainees asked for a cigarette and a lighter, after which five others started to protest in the facility.
“The officials made fun of them, they got irritated, and two of them set a mattress on fire,” Campbell said, via the Associated Press.
The Associated Press reported that, late Wednesday, hundreds of unlawful migrants crossed the border into the United States from Ciudad Juarez in protest. Many families had reportedly been waiting for word on whether their relatives were alive or dead.
