Last month, a fire in Ciudad Juarez killed 40 migrants, and now Mexico's top immigration official will face criminal charges. The federal Attorney General's Office says Francisco Garduño, who is in charge of Mexico's National Immigration Institute, didn't do enough to prevent the disaster, even though there were signs of problems at his agency's detention centers.

Some people in Mexico and Central American countries wanted higher-level officials to be held responsible, not just the five guards and a Venezuelan migrant who are already facing homicide charges. Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that it's not clear what Garduño will be charged with yet.

At first, people were angry at two guards who ran away from the fire without unlocking the cell door to let the migrants out. But the President said they didn't have the keys. The Attorney General's Office said other officers from Garduño's agency will also face charges for not doing their jobs properly, but they didn't say what the charges would be or who the officials are.

There have been complaints about corruption and bad conditions at Mexico's migrant detention facilities for a long time, but nothing has been done about it. In 2020, a fire at another detention center killed one person and hurt 14 others, and the immigration agency knew there were problems that needed to be fixed but didn't do anything.

The fire last month happened in a border city called Ciudad Juarez. The bodies of 17 Guatemalan migrants and six Hondurans killed in the fire have been flown back to their home countries. The guards who were detained previously over the fire might be affected by the President's comments.

A Venezuelan migrant is also being held for investigation in connection with the fire. He is accused of setting fire to foam mattresses at the detention center to protest plans to move or deport the migrants.

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