LAGOS, Nigeria (Voice Of Naija) Mexico has begun filing criminal complaints with state prosecutors across the United States over the deaths of 17 of its citizens in immigration custody or during enforcement operations, marking the country’s strongest legal response yet to the mounting toll of its nationals under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the move in a statement on Tuesday, saying the complaints target deaths that occurred since Trump returned to office in January last year. According to Al Jazeera, of the 17 Mexican nationals who died, 14 died while detained in facilities run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while three others died during ICE arrest operations.
Mexico has also sent cease-and-desist letters to detention centres where its citizens have died, according to Al Jazeera. The first letter went to the Adelanto detention centre in California, where four Mexican citizens have died. The letters call for an end to practices Mexico says may have contributed to the deaths, including delays in medical care and detention conditions that fall short of medical and prison standards.
Beyond the state-level complaints, Mexico’s government plans to file a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice through its embassy in Washington, while its consular network works to bring individual cases to state prosecutors, Al Jazeera reports. Mexican Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco Álvarez has also written to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, asking his office to seek information from U.S. authorities on whether the deaths are consistent with Washington’s international obligations.
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President Claudia Sheinbaum, addressing reporters this week, said her government “cannot turn a blind eye to the Mexicans who have died,” according to Truthout, and described some of the deaths as amounting to homicides and human rights violations. Speaking specifically about the fatal shooting of Mexican citizen Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by an ICE agent in Houston on July 7, Sheinbaum compared the killing to an execution, per RedState’s account of her remarks.
Axios reports that the escalation follows what Mexican officials describe as repeated, unsuccessful attempts to engage U.S. authorities through diplomatic channels alone. Foreign Minister Velasco said Mexico decided to “move beyond the diplomatic sphere” and approach U.S. prosecutors directly, requesting the deaths be investigated as criminal matters. He added that Mexico also intends to pursue civil lawsuits against the private companies that operate U.S. immigration detention facilities.
The Department of Homeland Security has disputed the characterization of a rising death toll. A DHS official told Axios there has been “NO spike in deaths,” maintaining that, as of late May, death rates in ICE custody remain consistent with the past decade at roughly 0.008 per cent of the detained population. Independent data reviewed by Axios from the Detention Watch Network, however, shows 19 immigrant deaths in ICE custody so far in 2026 and 31 last year, compared with 26 total deaths recorded across the entirety of the previous administration’s term.
The dispute comes as Mexico’s diplomatic pressure intensifies against a backdrop of deepening unease among Mexican communities in the U.S. Hundreds marched through Houston’s Magnolia Park neighbourhood last week, chanting for ICE to leave the city, following Salgado Araujo’s death. His family has said he lived in the U.S. for 35 years and worked in construction, and has disputed DHS’s account that he “weaponized his vehicle” against an officer.
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For Nigeria and the wider African diaspora in the U.S., Mexico’s legal escalation is being watched as a possible template. Nigerian consular officials have in recent months reported a rise in inquiries from citizens and dual nationals worried about their treatment under the same immigration enforcement drive, and Mexico’s willingness to pursue criminal complaints — rather than diplomatic notes alone — may shape how other governments, including Nigeria’s, choose to respond if similar cases involving their own nationals arise.D
