Mexico seeks US criminal probes into ICE-related deaths

Mexico will ask U.S. prosecutors to open criminal investigations into the deaths of Mexican citizens in immigration custody and enforcement operations, escalating its response after an ICE agent fatally shot a Mexican national in Houston this week.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that Mexico “cannot turn a blind eye to the Mexicans who have died” and would move beyond diplomatic protests while maintaining relations with the United States.

“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 against whoever is found responsible for what we consider to be homicides or, in other cases, for human rights violations,” Sheinbaum said at her morning news conference.

Mexican Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco told reporters the government would take “forceful legal action” to protect the human rights of Mexican citizens in the United States. He said 14 Mexicans have died while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and three others have died during ICE arrest or enforcement operations.

“We are going to move beyond the diplomatic sphere and go directly to US prosecutors to file complaints regarding these incidents, requesting that they are investigated as criminal matters,” Velasco said. He said Sheinbaum had instructed him directly to file the complaints.

Mexico also plans to bring civil lawsuits against private companies that operate U.S. immigration detention centers where Mexican nationals have died, Velasco said.

The announcement followed the killing of 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during an immigration operation in Houston on Tuesday. His death drew outrage in Mexico and in Texas, where more than a thousand people protested Wednesday, according to the BBC. Al Jazeera reported that hundreds marched through Houston’s historic Magnolia Park neighborhood, chanting “ICE out of Houston.”

Salgado’s family said he had lived in the United States for 35 years, had no criminal convictions and was driving a crew to a construction site when he was shot. His son, Ronaldo Salgado, said his father had worked as a builder in the Houston area for three decades after coming to the U.S. as an undocumented migrant and “did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of ‘Mexican man shot and killed by ICE.’” The family also said he had been working toward legal status.

The Department of Homeland Security gave a different account. In a statement posted on X, the department said “ICE law enforcement attempted to conduct a vehicle stop as part of a targeted enforcement operation to arrest an illegal alien” and alleged Salgado “attempted to evade arrest.”

“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,” the statement said.

Salgado’s family disputes the account and, along with civil rights groups, is demanding that authorities release video of the encounter, Al Jazeera reported.

Four Democratic members of Congress have asked the Department of Homeland Security for a fully independent and transparent investigation. In a letter, they wrote that the Houston shooting was “not the first time ICE agents have used unnecessary, deadly force” and said DHS and ICE had offered a familiar explanation, “claiming an evasion of arrest, weaponisation of a vehicle, and that the fatal shooting was a result of self-defense.”

The lawmakers also pointed to the cases of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens killed by federal agents in Minneapolis in January, which sparked nationwide protests.

Reuters reported, according to Al Jazeera, that Salgado’s death brings to at least six the number of people fatally shot during U.S. immigration enforcement operations since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025. Al Jazeera also reported that ICE’s website lists 32 detainee deaths in 2025, compared with 11 in 2024, and that an estimated 19 in-custody deaths occurred between January and early June this year.

The Department of Homeland Security rejected the idea that deaths had increased, telling Al Jazeera in June that “there has been NO spike in deaths” and saying ICE detention centers maintain a “higher standard of care than most prisons that hold US citizens.”