Migrants reportedly set deadly fire over deportation fears

The fire that killed at least 39 people near El Paso, Texas was set by migrants out of deportation fears — as tensions reached a boiling point with Mexican immigration officials Monday night, according to Mexico’s president.

Some migrants ignited stacked mattresses at the entrance of the Lerdo station of the National Institute of Migration after learning that they would be sent back to their countries of origin, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed Tuesday morning.

“This had to do with a protest that they started,” he explained.

“We assume that they found out that they were going to be deported, mobilized and as a protest at the door of the shelter they put up mattresses and set them on fire and they did not imagine that this was going to cause this terrible disgrace.”

Another 29 were injured and considered in “delicate-serious” condition, the El Paso Times reported.

About 68 migrants, mostly Venezuelan men and some Central Americans, were rounded up Monday, after Mexican authorities in Ciudad Juarez, the city directly across the border from El Paso, have become increasingly hostile to asylum-seekers, reported El Diario de Juarez.

Residents have reported the migrants, who often linger in the streets, as a nuisance, the paper said. They were taken to the migrant center — just feet away from the international boundary — where they’ll be taken to destinations like Mexico City or deported altogether from Mexico.

Officials were still working to identify the dead Tuesday morning, while survivors were receiving treatment at local hospitals.

Investigators are looking into why Mexican officials were slow to put out the flames, the Juarez paper stated.

Some migrants could not escape the building as they were described as “detained” and ended up dying of smoke inhalation.