Raquel Aldana: Migrant deaths in Mexico put spotlight on US policy that shifted immigration enforcement south

The recent fiery deaths at a detention facility in Mexico has led many to question of safety of immigrant detainees.  My colleague Raquel Aldana for The Conversation looks carefully at the deaths of at least 39 migrants.  While there are several contributing factors, including the detainees starting fires in protest and guards seen on video walking away from the blaze. Aldana asserts that “another part of the tragedy that can’t be overlooked: the decades long immigration enforcement policies of the U.S. and Mexican governments that have seen the number of people kept in such facilities skyrocket.”

She notes that, in the aftermath of the fire, Felipe González Morales, the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights of migrants, commented on Twitter that the “extensive use of immigration detention leads to tragedies like this one.”

Click the link above to read Aldana’s insightful analysis.

KJ