Several hundred migrants held a protest on Monday at one of the border crossings between Ciudad Juárez, in Mexico, and El Paso, in the US, which led to the closure of the passage of vehicles in the place where tension still persists after the deadly fire with dozens of dead migrants that broke out two weeks ago in a detention center.
The incident occurred around 9:30 in the morning when some 300 migrants, mostly Central and South Americans, gathered around the Paso del Norte International Bridge to demand that the US authorities expedite immigration procedures.
The delay of the US authorities in processing asylum applications, which are made through an opaque system of waiting lists, has encouraged protests by migrants in recent weeks.
Almost a month ago a similar event was recorded on the same bridge when hundreds of migrants, encouraged by false rumors that they could cross into the United States, tried to enter in masse and were blocked by the US authorities who put up physical barriers at the border crossing before “a potential threat of massive entrance”, said the CPB.
On Monday, the group of migrants protested for about two hours, without crossing the border, and then withdrew peacefully, the mayor’s office said.
As a security measure, the US authorities limited the passage of vehicles through the Paso del Norte International Bridge but left the pedestrian crossing free, Roger Maier, a spokesman for the US Customs and Border Protection Office (CPB) said in an email.
On the night of March 27, a deadly fire broke out in a detention center of the National Institute of Migration in Ciudad Juárez, which to date has left 40 migrants dead and twenty injured, some of them still in serious condition.
In this case, a Mexican judge linked to the process last week five detainees, including three Immigration officials, a private security guard and a Venezuelan migrant, who face charges of homicide and injuries.
Source: LA Times
