“More than 1,000 migrants” tried to cross the border between Mexico and the United States on Wednesday, US border guards said, adding that they will be deported.
The migrants crossed the border between the two countries on foot from Ciudad Juarez (northern Mexico) where 39 migrants died in the fire of a detention center overnight from Monday to Tuesday, noted a team of AFP on the Mexican side.
They then surrendered to US border guards who will “deport” them, said Anthony Good, a border patrol official for El Paso, the twin city of Juarez in Texas, on Twitter.
The United States Consulate in Ciudad Juarez has denied “rumors about the opening of the border after the Ciudad Juarez tragedy”, which are “completely false”.
“The border is closed to irregular immigration!” hammered the US consulate on Twitter in a message in Spanish titled “Don’t be fooled”.
A rumor circulated among the migrants indicating that the United States was ready to receive some of them for humanitarian reasons, noted the AFP correspondent in Ciudad Juarez.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre vaguely mentioned “medical assistance here in the United States” for the “wounded”, after contacts with “Mexican officials on the ground”.
In Mexico City, Secretary (Minister) of Security Rosa Icela Rodriguez thanked the United States authorities “who indeed offered their support”.
“But whether it was accepted at this time is not very clear to me,” she added.
The minister has revised upwards the toll of the fire which broke out in the night from Monday to Tuesday, from 38 to 39 dead.
It also reported 27 injuries, including six in “extremely serious” condition.
The Mexican authorities announced on Wednesday the opening of an investigation for “homicide”.
Eight alleged perpetrators have been identified, suspected of having done nothing to save the migrants, the human rights prosecutor’s office said.
The migrants had set fire to mattresses because they feared deportation, according to Mexican authorities.