Mexico pushes US probes into ICE immigrant deaths

Mexico asks US state attorneys general to investigate immigrant ICE deaths

Mexico has formally asked US state attorneys general to open criminal investigations into the deaths of immigrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody or during enforcement operations, according to the Mexican government. The request, which Mexico said was submitted on Tuesday, follows the killing of Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas.

The move adds diplomatic pressure around a series of deaths that Mexico says have taken place during immigration enforcement since the start of Donald Trump’s second term. According to the Mexican foreign ministry, 17 Mexican immigrants have died in that period, including 14 deaths in ICE custody and three during agency operations.

Mexico asks US state attorneys general to investigate immigrant ICE deaths

Mexico’s foreign ministry said the request to state attorneys general had already been formalized, and that a similar appeal would also be sent to the US Department of Justice. The government acknowledged that the United States is not legally required to act on either request.

The case has drawn attention after Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Houston on 9 July, according to the source report provided by The Guardian. That death became the immediate backdrop to Mexico’s latest diplomatic move.

The request is notable because it shifts the issue from bilateral concern to a call for criminal scrutiny by US authorities at both state and federal level. Mexico is asking officials in the United States to review deaths linked to ICE detention and enforcement actions, rather than handling the matter solely through diplomatic protest.

Mexico also said it has started sending letters to US detention centers where Mexican immigrants have died. In those letters, the government said it is demanding that the facilities immediately stop the actions or omissions that it says contributed to the deaths. The source report cites examples such as preventing access to prompt and expedited medical care, though the full wording available in the source is incomplete.

The deaths have become a sensitive issue because they involve both custodial responsibility and the use of force during immigration enforcement. For Mexico, the figures it has released suggest a broader pattern across multiple incidents, not a single isolated case. For US authorities, the requests create renewed scrutiny of how detention centers and enforcement operations are managed when Mexican nationals are involved.

What happens next will depend on whether any US state attorneys general, or the Justice Department, choose to respond. Mexico’s government has made clear that it wants criminal investigations, but the source material notes that the United States is under no legal obligation to comply.

The development extends a dispute that is likely to remain under close watch because it sits at the intersection of immigration enforcement, consular concern and accountability for deaths in custody. With Mexico now pursuing state and federal channels, the issue has moved beyond a single fatal shooting in Houston and into a wider challenge to how such cases are examined in the United States.