Mexico has formally requested that US state attorneys general criminally investigate cases of migrants who have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody or during raids. The request follows the death of Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Houston, Texas.

Background

Since the beginning of US President Donald Trump’s second term, 17 Mexican migrants have died during immigration enforcement, 14 in ICE custody and three in agency operations. Mexico’s Foreign Ministry had previously said it would make the request, which was formalized on Tuesday.

The Mexican government has also started sending letters to US detention centers where Mexican migrants have died, demanding they “immediately cease the actions or omissions that resulted in these deaths, such as preventing access to prompt and expedited medical care, as well as the application of policies incompatible with medical and penitentiary standards.”

The first center to receive the letter was Adelanto, in California, where four Mexican migrants died. The letters are a first step toward “the eventual filing of civil lawsuits” against the companies that operate the detention centers to stop human rights violations, according to the ministry.

International Response

Mexican Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco sent a letter to Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, requesting that US authorities gather information on the deaths of the Mexican migrants in ICE custody and analyze the “compatibility of these events with international human rights obligations.”

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.