Mexico Filing Criminal Complaints Over Deaths of Its Nationals in ICE Custody

On Thursday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced plans for her government to file criminal complaints against the United States, seeking to hold the country accountable for the deaths of Mexican citizens who died while in custody of immigration agencies or while being pursued in anti-immigration raids.

A total of 17 Mexican citizens could be included in the complaint process, including 14 people who died while being detained in facilities managed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and three who died during arrests by the agency.

“We cannot turn a blind eye to ​the Mexicans who have died…especially to Mexicans whose only crime is working honestly ​in the United States,” Sheinbaum said in a statement.

Mexican Foreign Minister Roberto ​Velasco also spoke about the matter, stating:

We are going to move beyond the diplomatic sphere and go directly to U.S. prosecutors to file complaints regarding these ⁠incidents, requesting ​that they are investigated as criminal matters.

In addition to criminal complaints against the U.S., Mexico will also file civil lawsuits against private companies that are helping to operate immigration jails where these deaths occurred.

The announcements from Mexican officials come just days after a Mexican immigrant who had been living in the U.S. for decades was killed by ICE agents who were pursuing him.

Houston resident Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who had lived in the city for around 35 years, was stopped by unmarked vehicles on his way to work earlier this week. As he attempted to flee the scene — perhaps because he was unaware of who was stopping him — ICE agents shot and killed him, claiming he was using his vehicle as a weapon and that their action was in self-defense.

ICE and other agencies managed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) made similar claims of self-defense that turned out to be false following the killings of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti, as well as the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis. Immigrant rights organizations are calling for a full, transparent, and independent investigation into Salgado Araujo’s killing.

“What we know is very thin,” said Juan Proaño, the CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, adding that “every piece of evidence, body camera footage, dash cam footage, bystander video, dispatch records must all be preserved and released to an independent investigator and to the public.”

Carly Pérez Fernández, communications director at Detention Watch Network, said Salgado Araujo’s killing was further evidence of the need to abolish ICE.

“ICE kills people and threatens community safety across the country,” Pérez Fernández said in a statement shared with Truthout. “No one is safe when ICE is present — whether on the streets or in one of the agency’s more than 200 abuse-ridden detention facilities.”

She added:

People are dying in detention and ICE agents are tearing families apart and shooting people on the streets, making people less safe, and causing chaos wherever they go. We demand an end to the ICE age.