Barbs fly from Mexico leader, but migration deal stays above the fray
Washington PostMar 27, 2023
According to Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM), at least 39 people died on Monday after a fire broke out at a migrant processing center in Juárez, Mexico, located near the Stanton-Lerdo Bridge across from El Paso, Texas.
Images from the scene, where the INM say 68 men from Central and South America were staying, show bodies underneath sheets as well as ambulances, firefighters, and vans from the morgue. Twenty-nine people were reportedly taken to the hospital with critical injuries.
Though they finalized a migration deal in December, the soon-ending Title 42 policy has still left America's southern neighbor overwhelmed by migrants headed through Mexico to the US. Facing pressure from both the Biden admin. and his own citizens to tighten immigration policies, López Obrador still can't get a handle on the situation. The once pro-immigrant politician is in a tight spot, and calls from North American conservatives to take harsher measures aren't helping.
In contrast to the Trump admin., which actually deterred illegal immigrants from even trying to reach the US, Biden's migration agreement with Mexico has done very little to mitigate the border crisis. These migrants obviously know that a few deportations here and there won't stop them from reaching America once Title 42 is over, so incidents like this — which is just one symptom of the border crisis — will only continue until lawmakers finally show, though concrete legislation, that people can't simply walk through Mexico into the US.