Mexico ICE custody deaths have prompted the government to pursue criminal complaints in the United States, after officials confirmed that more than a dozen of its citizens died while in American immigration custody. Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco told reporters that Mexico would take “forceful legal action” to defend the human rights of its citizens in the US, revealing that 14 Mexicans had died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with three more killed during ICE arrest operations.Labendeer.com
The deaths have sparked outrage on both sides of the border. On Wednesday, more than a thousand people protested in Houston after an ICE officer fatally shot Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo a day earlier. Salgado, 52, had worked as a builder in the Houston area for three decades after arriving in the US as an undocumented migrant, according to his son.
“My father did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of ‘Mexican man shot and killed by ICE’,” Ronaldo Salgado told journalists, adding that his father had been on his way to work when he was killed. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement on X that ICE officers had attempted a vehicle stop as part of a targeted enforcement operation, alleging that Salgado tried to evade arrest.
According to the DHS statement, “From information we are receiving, he rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defence.”
Four Democratic members of the US Congress have called for a fully independent and transparent investigation into Salgado’s death, writing in a letter to the DHS that Tuesday’s shooting was “not the first time ICE agents have used unnecessary, deadly force.” The lawmakers pointed to the earlier deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two US citizens killed by federal agents in Minneapolis in January, an incident that ignited nationwide protests.
Referring to the Salgado case, the lawmakers wrote that “instead of answers and accountability, DHS and ICE released a statement echoing the same stories we have heard before, claiming an evasion of arrest, weaponisation of a vehicle, and that the fatal shooting was a result of self-defense.” Separately, four Mexican nationals have died while held at an ICE detention facility in Adelanto, California.
Mexico’s government has grown increasingly vocal in its criticism of the Trump administration since Salgado’s death. President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday it was time to “go further than diplomatic notes” in addressing the deaths of Mexican citizens in US custody.
Velasco said Sheinbaum had personally instructed him to file the complaints, with the goal of having the deaths investigated “as criminal matters.” He added that Mexico also intends to pursue civil cases against the private companies operating the US detention facilities where 14 of its citizens died.
