Mexico to pursue criminal complaints in US over deaths of 17 citizens in immigration crackdown

Mexico will file criminal complaints with state and federal prosecutors in the United States over the deaths of 17 of its citizens in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody or during the agency's operations, President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Thursday — one of the most direct legal challenges any foreign government has mounted against Washington's deportation drive.

Fourteen of the 17 died while detained by ICE and three were killed in the course of enforcement operations, according to the Mexican government. Alongside the criminal complaints, Mexico says it will bring civil lawsuits against the private companies that run US immigration detention centres and take the cases to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the office of the United Nations' top human rights official.

"We are going to do everything in our power, because we cannot stand silent," Sheinbaum told her morning news conference in Mexico City, according to the Associated Press, describing the dead as people "whose only crime is working honestly in the United States."

The move is a deliberate step beyond the diplomatic notes Mexico has sent since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025 promising mass deportations. "We made the decision — obviously, we will maintain diplomatic relations — to file a formal complaint with both state and federal prosecutors in the United States," Sheinbaum said, in remarks reported by Al Jazeera.

A shooting in Houston

The announcement came two days after an ICE officer shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national, as he drove a crew of workers to a housing construction site in Houston early on 7 July.

The Department of Homeland Security said Salgado Araujo disregarded officers' commands and tried to ram an agent with his van, and that the officer fired in self-defence. His family and the co-workers travelling with him dispute that account, and DHS has acknowledged that the officers who stopped his white van were searching for a different person. Salgado Araujo had lived in the United States for some 35 years, ran a small construction business, had no criminal record and was in the process of regularising his immigration status, according to his family. The FBI has opened an investigation into the incident.

Prosecutors, lawsuits and international bodies

Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco, a specialist in US relations appointed to the post in April, said the complaints would be filed with prosecutors in the US states where Mexicans have died, as well as with the Department of Justice.

"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," Velasco said.

Mexico's legal offensive runs on three tracks:

• Criminal complaints with state prosecutors and the US Department of Justice, asking that the 17 deaths be investigated as crimes;
• Civil lawsuits against the GEO Group and CoreCivic, the private operators of US immigration detention facilities, over the conditions in which 14 Mexicans died in custody;
• International petitions to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the UN human rights chief.

Velasco said 58 migrants of various nationalities had died in ICE detention centres in 2025 and 2026.

Washington rejects the accusations

The Trump administration has defended both the Houston shooting and its detention record. A DHS spokesperson told NewsNation there had been no spike in detention deaths and that "all detainees receive full due process and are provided with proper meals, water, medical treatment," with access to lawyers and family members. The department says ICE officers are trained to use the minimum force necessary and receive regular de-escalation training.

The toll has nonetheless drawn scrutiny well beyond Mexico. At least 31 people died in ICE detention in 2025 — the deadliest year in two decades, according to a CBS News analysis of agency records — and Al Jazeera has reported that at least six people have been fatally shot during immigration enforcement operations since January 2025.

Not the first disputed killing

Among the three Mexicans killed during operations is Silverio Villegas González, a 38-year-old shot by an ICE officer in Franklin Park, Illinois, in September 2025 as he tried to drive away from a traffic stop during the "Operation Midway Blitz" enforcement surge around Chicago. DHS said at the time that the officer fired fearing for his life; ABC7 Chicago later reported that body-camera footage contradicted parts of that account, with the agent describing his own injuries as "nothing major."

For Sheinbaum, who has spent a year and a half balancing cooperation with Washington on trade and security against domestic anger over the treatment of Mexicans in the US, the legal push is a calculated escalation — aimed at American courts and international forums rather than at the bilateral relationship itself. Its practical effect is uncertain: US prosecutors are under no obligation to open investigations at a foreign government's request, and civil suits against detention contractors could take years. But by placing named cases before prosecutors, courts and human-rights bodies, Mexico is ensuring the deaths of its 17 citizens will be examined outside the agencies accused of causing them.