Migrants set fire in midnight camp raid in northern Mexico

Migrants set fire to protest a raid at a Chihuahua camp near the U.S. border as Mexican forces cleared the site ahead of Trump’s inauguration.

Migrants attempting to avoid arrest set fire to blankets and mattresses at a camp in Chihuahua, a northern Mexican city, during a government raid to clear the site early Saturday morning.

The operation, conducted near the U.S. border, took place just days before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday. Trump has criticized Mexico for insufficient efforts to curb migration to the U.S. and has proposed severe tariffs in response.

Around midnight, approximately 250 Mexican officials, including National Guard military police in riot gear, surrounded the camp, according to a Reuters eyewitness. In protest, migrants ignited mattresses and blankets and tried to escape the site with babies and personal belongings.

The fire was extinguished within an hour, and no injuries or fatalities were reported. Mexico’s migration agency has yet to issue a statement on the incident.

An unnamed migration official, not authorized to speak publicly, informed Reuters that the operation aimed to transport the migrants to Mexico’s southern border, where they would be instructed to return to their home countries.

The number of people detained remains unclear. Many of the roughly 150 migrants at the camp were Venezuelan families who had paused in Chihuahua, located approximately 220 miles (360 km) from Ciudad Juarez across the border from El Paso, Texas, as they traveled north toward the U.S.

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