Mexican Migration Chief to Be Charged in Fire but Keep Job

The casket of Miguel Rojche is carried from his home to the cemetery after his wake in Chicacao, Guatemala, on April 12, 2023. Rojche and his nephew Francisco died in a fire while held at a Mexican immigration detention center in Ciudad Juarez. Moises Castillo/AP Photo

MEXICO CITY—Mexico’s immigration head will face criminal charges in a fire that killed 40 migrants in a detention center last month, but President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Wednesday that he will not dismiss the official known for his hard line on northbound migration.

Obrador’s decision to keep Francisco Garduño as head of the Mexican Immigration Institute appeared to conflict with the federal Attorney General’s Office announcement late Tuesday to charge Garduño in connection with the blaze.