World & Nation
· collected 2026-08-27 · by Patrick J. McDonnell, Ruben Vives
‘Too many cases’: Mexico confronts U.S. over deaths of its citizens in ICE custody
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Mexico → confront → article
- Mexico’s president is escalating pressure on U.S. authorities over 17 Mexican migrants who died in ICE custody or operations.
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who → escalate → custody
Mexican diplomats have filed complaints with the Justice Department, eight attorneys general and 12 district attorneys.
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diplomats → file → Department
Prosecutors have announced no criminal cases, underscoring Mexico’s limited standing in U.S. courts.
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Prosecutors → announce → courts
As increasing numbers of migrants perish during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has vowed to ramp up pressure on U.S. authorities to investigate the deaths.
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Sheinbaum → increase → deaths
“There are too many cases,” Sheinbaum told reporters last week, referring to 17 Mexican citizens who have died while in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody or during ICE operations.
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who → be → operations
“Our obligation is to always defend Mexicans who are in the United States or whatever part of the world.”
The growing toll prompted Sheinbaum last month to direct Mexican diplomats to file complaints with state attorneys general and district attorneys across the United States, demanding that prosecutors investigate deaths that occurred in their jurisdictions.
“We cannot turn a blind eye to the Mexicans who have died,” Sheinbaum said following the most recent fatal incident — the ICE shooting in Houston last month of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, a construction contractor from Mexico who had lived in the United States for three decades.
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who → defend → decades
Mexico’s new strategy represents an escalation from the country’s traditional policy of filing protests through diplomatic channels while assisting families with legal advice, paperwork and shipping remains back to Mexico.
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strategy → represent → Mexico
However, to date, Mexico’s stepped-up efforts have yielded few results.
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efforts → step → results
“The Americans don’t seem to be paying much attention,” said Víctor Clark, a long-time human rights advocate in Tijuana.
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Clark → seem → Tijuana
“What Mexico is doing is basically a bureaucratic step with no real response.
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doing → do → response
From a legal standpoint, Mexico faces an uphill battle.
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Mexico → face → battle
Mexican authorities use the word denuncias (complaints) for their actions, but Mexico cannot directly file complaints in U.S. courts in these cases.
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Mexico → use → cases
U.S. prosecutors have no mandate to respond to Mexican inquiries.
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prosecutors → have → inquiries
“The reality of the matter is that the Mexican government has very little standing to file complaints in the United States,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, a Washington-based research and advocacy group.
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Melnick → have → Council
“A request for investigation from the Mexican government probably has a little more of an impact than a request from a random private citizen.”
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request → have → citizen
At least 52 migrants — including 14 Mexican citizens — have died while in ICE custody since the beginning of the second Trump administration, according to a report in June from Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights.
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migrants → include → Rights
In addition, at least nine people have died during reported agency operations since 2025.
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people → die → 2025
ICE says it thoroughly investigates all deaths of individuals in its custody or during agency actions.
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it → say → actions
Critics charge that the Trump administration fails to pursue such cases adequately.
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administration → charge → cases
To date, Mexico has received partial or no responses to complaints sent to the eight states where the 17 deaths of Mexican citizens occurred, Roberto Velasco, Mexican’s foreign secretary, said last week.
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Velasco → receive → citizens
Attorney generals in only four states — California, Texas, Florida and Illinois — even acknowledged receipt of Mexico’s demands, Velasco said.
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Velasco → acknowledge → demands
The single definitive state reply came from Florida’s attorney general’s office, which concurred with ICE’s findings that the death of Royer Pérez Jiménez, 19, at the Glades County Detention Center was a “presumed suicide.”
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death → come → Center
According to Velasco, Ventura County was among only three of 12 local jurisdictions contacted — along with Cook County, Ill., and Harris Country, Texas — that said it was “evaluating” Mexico’s complaint.
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it → accord → complaint
But Joey Buttita, spokesperson for the Ventura County district attorney’s office, said the county had received no communication from Mexico.
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county → say → Mexico
Ventura was the site of one of ICE’s most sensational operations — the July 10, 2025, sweep at the Glass House Farms cannabis complex in Camarillo that resulted in hundreds of arrests as masked ICE agents descended on the facility.
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agents → result → facility
One worker, Jaime Alanis García, 56, originally from Mexico’s Michoacán state, was fatally injured when he fell 30 feet from a greenhouse roof.
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he → injure → roof
The farmworker who suffered fatal injuries while fleeing an immigration raid in Ventura County was buried in his Mexican hometown.
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who → suffer → hometown
A flashpoint in the controversy is the private Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County, where some 1,500 detainees are held.
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detainees → hold → County
At least four Mexican citizens have died at the Adelanto facility, which is operated by the Geo Group, a Florida-based company.
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which → die → Group
Representatives of detainees at Adelanto have filed a civil class-action lawsuit alleging widespread abuse — including systemic medical neglect, inadequate food and water and mold contamination.
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Representatives → file → neglect
In July, a federal judge ordered ICE to institute sweeping changes at the Adelanto center, mandating improvements in the provision of water, food, sanitation and medical care.
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judge → order → water
Both ICE and Geo Group have denied any abuse at the facility.
“For many illegal aliens this is the best healthcare they have received their entire lives,” according to a statement from Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency ,to The Times.
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they → deny → Times
“All detainees are provided with proper meals, water, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers.”
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detainees → provide → members
In March, after the fourth death of a Mexican national at Adelanto , the Mexican government vowed that it would “exhaust every legal and diplomatic avenue to bring attention to conditions” at U.S. detention centers.
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it → vow → centers
Mexican diplomats in Los Angeles presented relatives of José Guadalupe Ramos Solano, 52, who, according to an ICE statement, was found “unconscious and unresponsive” on March 25 at Adelanto.
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who → present → Adelanto
He had lived for 28 years in the United States and worked at an industrial laundromat, said his widow, Antonia Tovar.
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widow → live → laundromat
“My husband was a good person, dedicated to his kids and to his wife,” Tovar said.
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Tovar → dedicate → wife
“I just want justice and to fight for the people who are there.
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who → want → people
I want my husband’s case to be the last one.”
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case → want → ?
…and 4 more, not listed.
