Mexico immigration agency head to stand trial in deadly fire

A judge ordered the head of Mexicos immigration agency to stand trial on charges that he failed in his responsibility to protect those in his custody when 40 migrants died in a fire at a border detention centre in March.Francisco Garduno will remain free during the proceedings and will continue in his job.

A judge ordered the head of Mexico's immigration agency to stand trial on charges that he failed in his responsibility to protect those in his custody when 40 migrants died in a fire at a border detention centre in March.

Francisco Garduno will remain free during the proceedings and will continue in his job. His lawyer, Rodolfo Pérez, told The Associated Press that they will try to reach an agreement for reparations to the victims in order to avoid a trial.

"I will keep working … until ordered otherwise", Garduno told media late on Sunday as he left the court in the border town of Ciudad Juarez.

Federal prosecutors said that Garduno was responsible for the safety of the country's immigration facilities and that there was evidence that he knew that Ciudad Juarez's detention centre lacked basic safety measures but he did nothing to change it.

The judge denied the prosecutors' request that Garduno be removed from his position. He will have to present himself to the court every two weeks.

Garduno defence team said that a private firm was responsible for security at the facility, not government officials. A migrant allegedly started a fire inside the Ciudad Juarez detention centre on March 27. Security cameras inside the facility showed smoke quickly filling the cell holding 68 male migrants, but no one with keys attempted to rescue them. In addition to the 40 killed, more than two dozen were injured in the fire.

Garduno hasn't stepped down from his post, and President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has voiced his support. The president appointed Garduno to run the agency in 2019 while under pressure from then US President Donald Trump to take a more aggressive stance against migrants crossing Mexico. Garduno had previously been in charge of Mexico's prisons.

Seven other immigration officials are standing trial, including one who faces the same charges as Garduno.

The other six, including a retired military official who was the immigration agency's delegate in the state of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juarez is located, were charged with homicide and causing injury by omission.