‘No fire can hold me down’ - Jamaican insists deadly blaze won’t prevent him going to the USA through Mexico

Despite news that a fire in a Mexican migrant centre killed at least 40 people late Monday, John* is determined that in June, he will attempt to cross the US-Mexico border illegally.

"No fire can hold me down," the Kingston man told THE STAR, even as he admitted that his heart skipped a few beats when he learned of the deadly fire at the Juarez migrant centre.

"Mi hear 'bout the fire ting still, but Jamaicans smart and a go be militant if summen like dat fi gwan. It might sound a way, but we more fi start the fire than fi dead inna it. Mi a go do mi ting same way. Di only ting mi a worry 'bout is that mi may have to go tie up mi shirt front and pretend like mi a one a 'dem man deh' fi a while, but mi wouldn't be the first still because mi know say mi ting straight," he said.

Migrants fearing deportation reportedly set mattresses ablaze at the detention centre in northern Mexico, which starting the deadly fire, according to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Immigration authorities identified the dead and injured as being from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, with Guatemalans being the largest contingent, according to a statement from the Mexican attorney general's office.

John will be one of hundreds, if not thousands of Jamaicans streaming from Mexico into the US through human-smuggling collaborators. He said he has already accumulated $540,000 and is awaiting another $400,000 from a round-robin draw to pay his way through.

"Simple as you see it deh, it may cost me about US$4,000 or $4,500 to go through, because dem a clamp down on di border crossing ting," he said. John said he will be joining his babymother and four-year-old daughter, who successfully gained asylum in the US last year. He stated they were both turned down for visas previously.

"About seven years ago, the two a we go embassy, and mi don't know if a because a did di two a we go same time, but dem not even look pon we. A wholesale mi babymother use to work, and mi do little mechanic work. But it hard ya, man, and nuff a we family dem over farrin, so we say we a try a ting," he said.

According to Delona Flemming, director of public relations and communications at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, no Jamaicans were among the migrants housed at the Juarez centre.

"According to our embassy in Mexico, it is not a usual location to receive notifications regarding our nationals," she said.

While the ministry is unable to determine the number of Jamaicans who use Mexico to gain entry into the US, officials confirmed that between January and December 2022, 16,186 Jamaican nationals entered Mexico by air transportation.

*name changed to protect identity