MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican judge closed the case against Francisco Garduño, former head of the country’s immigration agency, for crimes related to the 2023 fire at a Ciudad Juarez detention center that killed 40 migrants and injured 30 others.
The incident was the deadliest event ever to occur at a Mexican immigration center and exposed the shortcomings and irregularities in Mexican immigration detention centers, as well as the way officials treated migrants.
Garduño faced trial for crimes of abuse of public office and dereliction of duty after footage from the fire showed guards failed to respond to cries for help.
The judge ruled Tuesday that the measures taken to repair the damage had been fulfilled, a decision rejected by the victims, who will appeal.
“Yesterday, corruption and the impunity of politicians protected by power won again,” denounced the Foundation for Justice, one of the NGOs representing some of the victims, on Wednesday in X.
In their view, the judge’s decision to close the criminal case against Garduño, which amounts to a de facto exoneration, “confirms that justice in Mexico is selective” and denies the victims “full reparations” and concrete guarantees that similar events will not be repeated.
Miguel Zenteno, one of the Foundation’s lawyers, noted that the sentence is not yet final because it will be appealed and because another injunction is pending against the reparations ordered by the judge for failing to meet the standards required by such serious events.
On March 27, 2023, some 70 men were crammed into a locked dormitory with no ventilation and barely any water at the Ciudad Juarez immigration detention center, on the border with El Paso, Texas. As night fell, a small group set fire to some mattresses in protest, and within seconds, smoke engulfed the entire area.
Security cameras recorded the guards leaving the area despite cries for help and without even attempting to open the gates. Only the women, held in another cell, were released. Most of the victims were Central Americans and Venezuelans.
Garduño, a former prison guard and current official at the Ministry of Education, led the National Migration Institute (INM) starting in 2019 and continued in the role until 2025 despite the tragic incident.
The judge had previously ordered Garduño to compensate the families, provide them with free specialized medical care, issue a public apology, provide human rights training to migration personnel and guarantee that the events would not be repeated.
Zenteno acknowledged that the measures were implemented, but only partially, because the damages were not paid by Garduño, as stipulated by the legal process, but rather by the INM, and these payments have not provided full reparations for the families. Furthermore, the victims were not even informed how to access free medical services, and the apology “was a mere formality, not substantive.”
In addition to Garduño, another former director of the institute was accused of the same crimes. Six immigration agents, including a military officer, a private security guard, and the two migrants accused of starting the fire, are charged with homicide and assault. Most of the officials remain free pending trial.
Follow AP’s Latin America coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
FILE - Mexican National Immigration Institute Chief Francisco Garduño, front, arrives to court in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, April 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez, File)
ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) — Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff faced off with angry members of the school’s faculty Wednesday at a meeting that underscored deep frustration on campus over his administration’s handling of a woman’s report that she was gang raped at a fraternity house in 2024.
Kotlikoff addressed members of the university's Faculty Senate, and took their questions, as it began considering a no-confidence resolution in his administration.
The meeting was closed to the media, but some faculty members leaving the session described the mood as leaning heavily against Kotlikoff, who has publicly acknowledged errors in the school's handling of the rape allegation.
Richard Bensel, a professor of government, said Kotlikoff was poised, and the debate was civil, but he estimated 80% of the faculty members who spoke at the meeting were in favor of a no-confidence vote.
“The faculty were extremely angry. They gave him a hard time, I think appropriately so,” Bensel said. He said the Faculty Senate had spent years passing resolutions calling for reforms to university disciplinary procedures, only to have its recommendations ignored by administrators.
“I don’t think there’s any way that we can open up the process for democratic reform except by passing this resolution,” he said.
Debate was expected to continue Oct. 28, followed by electronic voting by the Faculty Senate, which has approximately 130 voting members. A simple majority is required for passage.
A no-confidence vote by the faculty would be largely symbolic, but can send a powerful message to the university's trustees, who ultimately will decide how the university is run and who leads it.
Cornell's crisis began after a woman, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, filed a lawsuit alleging that seven Chi Phi fraternity members sexually assaulted or exploited her in October 2024 and that Cornell mishandled her complaints.
The criminal investigation by Cornell's police department quickly stalled after the local district attorney decided, only weeks after the woman went to police in 2024, that no crime had been committed.
At the time, Kotlikoff publicly addressed what he called “deeply disturbing” allegations, suspended the fraternity and said criminal and university investigations were underway. He subsequently convened a presidential task force to examine how Cornell handles sexual assault, but said this week that he never followed up to learn the outcomes of the criminal or Title IX investigations into the woman’s allegations.
But in an interview with The New York Times published Tuesday, Kotlikoff said he never followed up to learn what had happened to the woman or whether any of the accused students had been punished.
He acknowledged that, until the woman filed her lawsuit, he did not know she had dropped out of Cornell or that students had been expelled or suspended over the incident, or that some had remained enrolled at the school.
On Tuesday, Kotlikoff announced a ban on fraternity parties through the end of the academic year and plans to give state police a role in investigating sexual assault reports.
The faculty senate meeting stretched past the two hours anticipated. Kotlikoff left the meeting after addressing faculty members and answering questions, and did not stay for the debate over the no-confidence resolution.
“The institution is split in significant ways,” said Grant Farred, professor of Africana Studies and English, describing those in the humanities as feeling they had enough information to proceed while those in the sciences wanted more data.
Iris Packman, a member of the faculty senate and senior research and policy development associate at Cornell’s ILR School Climate Jobs Institute, said the meeting had a “contentious tone” and that Kotlikoff got “defensive.”
Cornell Labor History Professor Paul Ortiz, lead sponsor of the no-confidence resolution, said that at one point during his remarks, Kotlikoff suggested that replacing the president would not be good for the university. The resolution doesn't expressly call for such a thing, Ortiz said.
“What was animating the resolution is this sense of a perpetual ongoing crisis,” said Ortiz.
Anne Marie Brady, a senior extension associate at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, said she welcomed Kotlikoff’s recent announcement that state police would take on a role in sexual assault investigations, saying it showed the administration was listening to faculty concerns. But she questioned the timing, a day before the Senate debate.
For Ariana Kim, an associate music professor at Cornell and co-sponsor of the resolution, Kotlikoff’s acknowledgment that he had not followed up on the woman’s case was deeply troubling.
“I mean, that’s appalling in and of itself, right?” Kim said. “That you don’t know about a student who faced an alleged horrific crime, that you don’t think to check in.”
Kim, a Grammy-nominated violinist, said she was motivated to take action after being struck by Jane Doe’s story, as well as her own personal experiences on campus since she started at Cornell a decade ago as a young academic in her 20s. She said when she experienced bullying and sexual harassment by senior colleagues, Cornell failed to properly document her complaints and that she was never clearly informed what disciplinary action, if any, had been taken.
“I was asked what I had done to provoke the situation,” she said.
Kim said she continued to be expected to work alongside colleagues she said had harassed her. Her efforts to avoid them later became a point of criticism during her tenure review. In one instance, a senior professor cited her unwillingness to accept his advice and her avoidance of him in explaining his vote against granting her tenure.
Kim spent more than a year appealing the initial denial of tenure, a process during which she said she lost 20 pounds (9 kilograms) and struggled to eat or sleep. The original decision was ultimately overturned, and she secured tenure.
Now seeking promotion to full professor, Kim said she recognizes that publicly criticizing university leaders could again jeopardize her career.
“I’m speaking out publicly against this administration that may very well deny my promotion,” she said.
The controversy over Cornell’s handling of sexual assault allegations is the latest challenge for Kotlikoff, who became the university’s interim president in July 2024, months before Jane Doe’s alleged assault, and took the job permanently last year.
Dining and custodial workers went on strike shortly after he took office, and some faculty and students criticized his decision last year to pay $60 million to settle Trump administration civil rights investigations.
Earlier this year, he also faced accusations that he tried to back his car into demonstrators following a campus debate over Israel and Palestinian rights. Kotlikoff denied the allegations, saying he was the victim of harassment.
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Willingham reported from Boston.
Demonstrators march from the Washington Monument to the White House during a "Stop Sexual Violence" protest in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Demonstrators march from the Washington Monument to the White House during a "Stop Sexual Violence" protest in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
