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Mexico escalates legal action
Mexico began filing complaints with state prosecutors in the United States over the deaths of Mexican citizens in immigration detention and during enforcement operations, after Mexico said 17 of its citizens have died since Donald Trump returned to office in January last year.
Mexico said the first cease-and-desist letter was sent to the Adelanto detention centre in California, where four Mexican citizens have died, and the letters call for an end to practices including delays in medical care and detention policies Mexico says fall short of medical and prison standards.
The steps follow measures announced last week by President Claudia Sheinbaum, days after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed Mexican citizen Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a raid in Houston, Texas, on 7 July.
Sheinbaum said the issue went beyond the government and called on all Mexicans to show solidarity, adding, “We must raise our voices when there are human rights violations against our fellow citizens,” while she said Mexico was not seeking a confrontation with Washington.
Criminal complaints, UN outreach
President Claudia Sheinbaum said at a news conference Monday that the legal action has gained traction in the US and that the Foreign Ministry discussed the complaints with US Ambassador Ron Johnson, while Sheinbaum said he was “very receptive to our concerns” about alleged human rights violations and deaths of three Mexican nationals during ICE operations.
Mexico’s Foreign Ministry filed criminal complaints with the US Justice Department and state prosecutors for the deaths of Mexican nationals while in custody of ICE agents or during ICE operations, and Mexico encouraged national unity by urging all Mexicans to back the legal action.
The filings followed the “cold-blooded murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by ICE agents” last Tuesday, and Sheinbaum said the case was “not only a matter for the Mexican government” but also “a matter that concerns all Mexicans.”
Mexico also contacted the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, asking his office to seek information from US authorities and look into whether the deaths are consistent with Washington’s international obligations.
What Mexico says is at risk
Mexico’s government said it has started sending letters to US detention centers where Mexican migrants have died, demanding they “immediately cease the actions or omissions that resulted in these deaths, such as preventing access to prompt and expedited medical care, as well as the application of policies incompatible with medical and penitentiary standards.”
“Mexico has begun filing complaints with state prosecutors in the United States over the deaths of Mexican citizens in immigration detention and during enforcement operations, marking its strongest response yet to deaths linked to US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown”
The first center to receive the letter was Adelanto, in California, where four Mexican migrants died, and the letters are described as a first step toward “the eventual filing of civil lawsuits” against the companies that operate the detention centers.
The Guardian reported that Sheinbaum said Mexico would demand criminal complaints in the US for the deaths of more than a dozen Mexican migrants, including last week’s killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, whom Sheinbaum said was “practically murdered”.
The Guardian also said a total of 17 Mexican citizens have died since Donald Trump began his migrant crackdown—14 people in detention and another three killed during immigration operations—and that the request carries no legal weight while asking US federal and local courts to consider criminal charges.
