Fire at Southern Border Kills at Least 39 Migrants, Injures 29

There’s more tragedy at the southern border Tuesday as the Mexican Government’s National Migration Institute (INM) reported that at least 39 people are dead and 29 injured after a raging fire broke out at a migrant facility in the city of Ciudad Juarez.

From Reuters:

In a statement, the INM said there were 68 adult men from Central and South America staying at the facility and that 29 of them were also injured in the blaze and taken to four hospitals in the area.

A Reuters witness saw bodies lined up in body bags and confirmed that the fire, whose origins are under investigation, had been extinguished. Many of the migrants at the facility were Venezuelan, according to the Reuters witness.

At least 39 people are dead after a fire at a migrant center near the Mexico-U.S. border.

The fire began late Monday at a center run by the National Migration Institute in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and injured at least 29 people. https://t.co/h3sabJHgeI

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 28, 2023

NPR meanwhile reported that there are bodies outside the facility:

Images published by the local Diario de Juarez newspaper and shared by the Associated Press showed bodies under silver sheets, ambulances and firefighters outside the facility, which is located just across the border from El Paso, Texas.

The fire broke out just before 10 pm Monday evening. Most of the victims are believed to be Venezuelan.

The sad death toll is unfortunately part of a pattern under the Biden administration; as I’ve written, it’s a human tragedy at the Rio Grande as migrants are dying in droves.

The media often reports on the increasing number of illegal aliens and the hundreds of thousands of “gotaways” entering our country at the southern border under President Joe Biden’s watch, but what doesn’t always get as much attention is the number of people dying as they attempt the perilous trek.

Many get swept away by the powerful currents of the Rio Grande, perish by falling from cliffs along mountain passes or die from dehydration, or by getting lost at sea. Now, sadly, we can add fire to the list of deadly obstacles.

“It’s like a graveyard,” said Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber, who grew up in the area. “I’ve been working on the border for almost four decades and never saw tragedies of this magnitude.”

On Sunday alone, as RedState’s Jennifer Oliver O’Connell reports, two migrants are dead and 14 are in critical condition near Uvalde, Texas after being found in a train car east of the town of Knippa.

In one of the worst cases, which I reported on in September 2022, 53 illegals were found dead in the back of a semi that had been abandoned by the driver so he could go on a meth bender. In another case, 53 illegals were swept away by the Rio Grande, with nine of them drowning.

Meanwhile, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz admitted to House Homeland Security Committee this month that the U.S. does not even have “operational control” at the southern border.

It’s criminal, what this administration has allowed to happen at our boundary. While Biden and his minions regularly accused former President Donald Trump of cruelty for his border policies, it’s actually Biden’s own disastrous approach that has led to untold misery and lives lost. A situation like this was bound to happen.

More information is coming in regularly, and the death toll could certainly rise in this tragedy.

Border Patrol Union Blasts Biden, Tweets ‘This Is Not Leadership, It’s Cowardice’