Mexico plans US legal complaints over deaths tied to ICE operations
President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico will ask US prosecutors to investigate deaths of Mexican citizens during immigration enforcement.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
3 min read
Mexico plans to ask prosecutors in the United States to open criminal investigations into deaths of Mexican citizens linked to immigration enforcement. President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that her government views some cases as possible homicides or human rights violations.
Speaking at her morning news conference, Sheinbaum said Mexico would keep diplomatic relations with Washington while also taking legal steps in the US. She said Mexico “cannot turn a blind eye to the Mexicans who have died.”
Sheinbaum said the government had decided to file formal complaints with state and federal prosecutors “against whoever is found responsible” in cases Mexico considers homicides or human rights violations. Her comments mark a sharper response from Mexico as it challenges deaths connected to US President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign.
The announcement followed the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national, during an immigration operation in Houston two days earlier. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement was involved in the operation, according to Al Jazeera, the Associated Press and Reuters.
Mexico’s government says 14 Mexican nationals have died while in ICE custody, and three others have been killed during immigration enforcement operations. Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco said Mexico had already sent diplomatic protest notes over the deaths, but that efforts to work through US authorities had not produced results.
Velasco told reporters that Mexico would now move outside diplomatic channels and go to US prosecutors directly. He said the complaints would ask that the incidents be investigated as criminal matters.
Velasco also said Mexico intends to bring civil lawsuits against private companies that run US immigration detention facilities. He did not name specific companies in the remarks reported Thursday.
Salgado Araujo’s death has drawn protests in Houston and calls for an investigation from his relatives, civil rights groups and elected officials. On Wednesday night, hundreds of demonstrators marched through Houston’s Magnolia Park neighborhood and chanted against ICE, according to Al Jazeera.
His family says he had lived in the United States for 35 years, had no criminal convictions and was driving workers to a construction site when he was killed. Relatives also said he had been trying to obtain legal status.
The Department of Homeland Security gave a different account. The department said Salgado Araujo ignored officers’ commands during an immigration stop and tried to ram an agent with his vehicle, leading the officer to shoot.
Salgado Araujo’s family disputes that account. Relatives and civil rights groups have demanded that authorities release video of the encounter.
Reuters reported that Salgado Araujo was at least the sixth person fatally shot during US immigration enforcement operations since Trump returned to the presidency in January 2025.
Mexico has raised repeated concerns about its citizens in ICE detention. After another Mexican national died in custody in April, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry ordered consular officials to increase visits to ICE detention centers from weekly to daily and said it would use available legal and diplomatic channels to seek accountability.
ICE’s website shows 32 detainee deaths in 2025, compared with 11 in 2024. Al Jazeera reported that an estimated 19 in-custody deaths occurred between January and early June of this year.
The Department of Homeland Security rejected claims of a rise in deaths when asked by Al Jazeera in June, saying there had been “NO spike in deaths.” The department also said ICE detention centers provide a higher standard of care than many prisons holding US citizens.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.