Mexico prepares legal action against ICE over migrant deaths
The Sheinbaum administration steps up pressure on Washington, abandoning traditional diplomatic channels and preparing a criminal complaint over the Mexican nationals who died in custody or during immigration raids
Mexico is once again preparing to pursue the bold legal and political strategy of seeking justice in U.S. courts, even when doing so means challenging U.S. institutions and interests. President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government has announced that it will file a criminal complaint against ICE, the U.S. immigration enforcement agency, over the deaths or killings of at least 17 Mexican migrants who died either while in ICE custody or during raids.
The death of Mexican migrant Lorenzo Salgado, who was shot by an ICE agent, appears to have been the last straw for Sheinbaum’s administration. Until now, the Mexican government had limited itself to the usual diplomatic channels, lodging formal complaints and publicly defending migrant workers.
Alongside the criminal case, Mexico will also file a civil lawsuit over misconduct by the private companies that operate detention centers, which an independent investigation has blamed for delays in medical care for detainees, unsanitary detention conditions and other abuses.
“We cannot continue only with diplomatic letters that have yielded no results. That is why we are now saying: let the Department of Justice investigate whoever is responsible,” President Sheinbaum said on Monday.
Mexico’s offensive cannot be viewed separately from the tense state of bilateral relations, marked by U.S. threats of interference in Mexican affairs and the difficult review of the USMCA trade agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Mexico has also decided to involve the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, asking him to advocate on behalf of migrants and speak out against abuses committed by ICE. Sheinbaum expressed confidence that the criminal complaints — which, according to her announcement, will be filed simultaneously with several U.S. prosecutors’ offices — will not damage bilateral relations. It is difficult to predict how personally U.S. President Donald Trump will take the move. Trump has frequently and without evidence accused migrants of committing crimes in the United States.
In fact, that claim underpins Trump-era immigration policy: that ICE targets only undocumented migrants who pose a threat to Americans. The evidence suggests otherwise.
Fourteen Mexicans have died in detention centers and three more during ICE operations. They were construction workers, restaurant employees and farm laborers, with spouses and children born in the United States. Some, like Lorenzo Salgado, were in the process of regularizing their immigration status after decades of working and paying taxes in the country.
According to official Mexican figures, at least 177,000 Mexican nationals have been detained in the United States so far this year, and more than 13,000 remain in custody because of their irregular immigration status. Sheinbaum said the criminal complaints would be filed on Monday, but by press time Mexico’s Foreign Ministry had not provided details on the strategy’s progress.
Mexico has had mixed results with legal actions in U.S. courts — some favorable, others not. During the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018–2024), Mexico filed two lawsuits against U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors, accusing them of negligence and of helping arm drug cartels, which are the main culprits of violence in Mexico.
The U.S. Supreme Court halted one of those cases on the basis of a law granting immunity to gun manufacturers. A second lawsuit, however — focused on the sale of weapons directly to straw purchasers acting on behalf of criminal organizations in Mexico — is still proceeding.
Another legal effort during the López Obrador years was a civil lawsuit in Florida against Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former public security secretary under president Felipe Calderón (2006–2012), and his associates. The Florida suit, which ran parallel to the criminal case against García Luna in New York on drug-trafficking charges, sought to recover part of the fortune he allegedly amassed in the United States using from the embezzlement of Mexican public funds.
Driven by Mexico’s anti-money-laundering agency UIF, the lawsuit argued that García Luna’s assets should be returned to Mexico, the original owner of the misappropriated funds. The judge ultimately ruled that García Luna and his wife, Linda Cristina Pereyra, must pay Mexico more than $3 billion.
The issue of violence against Mexican migrants seems likely to place even greater strain on the bilateral relationship. Washington has increasingly called into question the notion that security cooperation between the two countries is conducted on equal terms.
The Sheinbaum administration sees several signs that the United States has acted behind Mexico’s back and for political purposes: from the controversial activities of CIA agents in Mexican territory, revived by recent revelations surrounding the DEA’s role in the capture of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, to the Justice Department’s unusual drug-trafficking allegations against the governor of Sinaloa, the contentious renegotiation of the USMCA, and the crisis in Cuba. Another front in the relationship is now about to open.
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