Mexico takes legal action in US criminal courts over ICE deaths – JURIST
of the government of Mexico on Tuesday DESIGNATED that the government has initiated several criminal complaints in response to the deaths of Mexican immigrants in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration has begun filing complaints with US state prosecutors through the Mexican Embassy and sending cease and desist letters to US detention centers where Mexican citizens have died.
The head of Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Relations (SRE), Roberto Velasco Alvarez, also sent a communication to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. Additionally, the Sheinbaum administration plans to file a complaint with the US Department of Justice.
of SRE did not provide further details about the criminal charges, but said that the first letter was addressed to him Adelanto Detention Center in California, which includes four Mexican nationals José Guadalupe Ramos SolanoHAVE he died. The letters identify a lack of “access to timely and efficient medical care” and substandard medical policies as reasons for the deaths and call for their “immediate cessation.” UN Communication calls for an investigation into the deaths and analysis of “the compatibility of these events with international obligations”.
While at least 17 Mexican immigrants have died in custody or during ICE operations, the most recent was that of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, 35-year US resident. Araujo died on July 7, 2026 after being shot by an ICE agent in Houston. US authorities claim Araujo was evading arrest by trying to outrun an ICE agent, while his family believes he was unknowingly followed on his way to work and then killed. He had no criminal record. After Araujo’s death, President Sheinbaum issued a statement announcing Tuesday’s registrations. “Their pain is shared by the nation,” she said.
The 17 deaths occurred in Georgia, Texas, Arizona, California, Missouri, Florida, Illinois and Louisiana, while Texas, California and Arizona are the states with the highest Mexican immigrants. the population. As of 2023, a total of 10.9 million Mexicans had immigrated to the US, representing 23% of the 47.8 million foreign-born residents of the US.
Despite the proliferation of Mexican immigrants, US-Mexico relations remain marked from issues such as “security, migration and trade”, according to José Luis Valdés Ugalde, academic at the Center for Research on North America at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He stated that the 17 deaths affect “bilateral relations and outstanding issues that Mexico and the United States have before them.” On July 1, the US announced it refusal to renew a trade deal that Mexico wanted to preserve.
Professor ONE Tomás Milton Muñoz Bravo awaits the November midterm elections in the US with the hope that the Republicans will lose their majority, giving way to “checks and balances” that will “allow room to negotiate with other actors in the United States.”
Munoz hopes that both countries will change course; Mexico about its history of not knowing “how to protect the immigrant community,” and the U.S. about a show of concern about Mexico’s actions in support of Mexican immigrants.
