I study migrants traveling through Mexico to the U.S. Here’s what I found.

A Venezuelan migrant washes in a small migrant encampment on May 13 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. After a big surge, the number of new immigrant arrivals has dropped since the end of U.S. Title 42. (John Moore/Getty Images)

The world awoke one morning in late March 2023 to the news that at least 38 Central and South American migrants had died in a fire in a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

A widely circulated video from closed-circuit cameras inside the detention center showed the building burning, with migrants trapped inside trying to break the metal bars of their cells — and detention center officers allegedly leaving them there.