Mexico to sue private ICE detention contractors
MEXICO CITY (MSI) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday her government will file criminal complaints with the U.S. Justice Department and state prosecutors, and pursue civil lawsuits against private companies contracted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, over the deaths of 17 Mexican citizens between June 2025 and this month.
The decision marks a shift from the 11 diplomatic complaints Mexico has sent to the U.S. State Department demanding investigations. Sheinbaum said her administration will also seek intervention from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Among the 17 deaths, 14 occurred in private or government-run detention centers, including facilities at the Adelanto detention center in California and the Florence Correctional Complex in Arizona, Sheinbaum said. She specifically cited the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican citizen fatally shot in Houston by federal ICE agents who mistook him for a Guatemalan citizen. The victim’s family has accused ICE of murder and a cover-up, though authorities have not made an official determination.
Sheinbaum said that raising concerns about human rights violations does not threaten cooperation with the Trump administration. “We have a relationship in terms of trade, we have a relationship on security, but we have to raise our voice when the human rights of our fellow citizens are violated,” she said.
Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco informed U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald D. Johnson about the planned legal actions, Sheinbaum said.