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Mexico announced on Thursday that it will file complaints in the United States to criminally investigate the deaths of 17 Mexicans while in custody or during operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“We are going to move beyond the diplomatic sphere to go directly to the United States prosecutors’ offices to file complaints regarding these events, requesting a criminal investigation into what is happening,” said the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Roberto Velasco, during the presidential morning conference.
He added that the complaints will be filed with both state prosecutors and the U.S. Department of Justice, and will be accompanied by civil actions against the companies that operate the detention centers so that human rights violations in those places cease.
President Claudia Sheinbaum explained that Mexico decided to raise the tone of its complaints after this week an ICE agent killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas.
“We are going to do everything in our power, because we cannot be negligent” regarding the death of Mexicans “whose only crime is working in the United States honestly,” said Sheinbaum.
Salgado Araujo was a man with no criminal record who had lived in the country for decades and was transporting a construction crew when he was shot. The family demanded a thorough investigation into what happened.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, agents were pursuing him because he was living in the country without legal permission. The Department added that Salgado Araujo was shot after ignoring orders and attempting to ram an agent, who fired his weapon in self-defense.
So far in Donald Trump’s second administration, Mexico has recorded the deaths of 14 Mexicans in ICE custody and three during operations by that agency.
Until now, the Mexican government had supported the victims' families, sent diplomatic notes to Washington demanding investigations, and raised the issue with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
It had also asked consuls to periodically visit the detention centers where nationals were being held to check on their conditions and even complained to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Whether it is appropriate to investigate the deaths of Mexicans as criminal offenses is something that will have to be determined by U.S. authorities, but in any case, the Mexican action represents an escalation in the already complicated relations between Mexico and the Trump administration, which has numerous open fronts on issues of security and the fight against cartels, as well as economic affairs.
[Publicidad]