CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) – Three suspects were arrested on Monday in the death of a Mexican migration agent who was found lifeless earlier in the day, state security and migration officials said.
The agent’s death marked a rare case of deadly violence against agents weeks before an expected crackdown on immigration after US President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
State investigators confirmed that the migration agent suffered a head injury and was found without vital signs. His body also showed “signs of violence,” according to a statement from public security officials in the northern state of Chihuahua.
The press release states that two Venezuelans have been detained.
Mexico’s migration agency INM announced in a separate statement that a third suspect, a Colombian national, was also detained.
The slain agent was attacked at a checkpoint south of Ciudad Juarez, which is across the border from the US city of El Paso, Texas, when he was asking an unspecified number of foreign nationals for their identification documents, according to INM.
The death of the immigration official comes as would-be migrants await an expected tightening of entry into the United States after Trump takes office on January 20.
Hundreds of US-bound migrants waited in long lines outside an immigration office in southern Mexico on Monday, hoping to secure safe passage north and enter the US legally before Trump returns to power.
