The Government of Mexico presented 20 complaints to state and county prosecutors in the United States for the deaths of 17 Mexicans that occurred since May during operations or in the custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE), in a new escalation of the actions undertaken to demand clarification of the cases.

In one community, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) reported this Wednesday that the complaints were filed on July 13 by the Mexican ambassador to the United States, Roberto Lazzeri, in the jurisdictions where the deaths occurred: eight before state prosecutors' offices and twelve before county prosecutors' offices in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri and Texas.

In addition to these resources, on July 14, the Mexican Embassy forwarded to the Department of Justice, through the Department of State, the complaint prepared by the Attorney General's Office (FGR), with the formal request to open investigations into the 17 cases and report on the progress of the investigations.

The Foreign Ministry specified that the actions are part of the follow-up to the measures announced on July 9 by President Claudia Sheinbaum, after the Mexican Government denounced the death of 17 Mexicans in ICE operations or detention centers since May of this year.

Likewise, he reported that Ambassador Lazzeri held meetings last week with authorities from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE, to whom he expressed the Mexican Government's concern about the conditions in detention centers, including those managed by private companies, and requested clarification of each of the deaths.

In parallel, the Foreign Minister, Roberto Velasco Álvarez, sent a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, to request that the organization collect information through clarification requests to the United States, analyze whether the facts are compatible with international human rights instruments and issue recommendations to prevent similar cases.

The agency added that the consular network maintains legal support for the families of the victims, in addition to providing support for the repatriation of remains and other procedures requested by relatives.

The new actions occur after last Friday the United States returned to the Mexican Government letters in which it expressed its concern about immigration operations and the treatment of its compatriots in ICE custody.

The senior official in the State Department's Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Michael Kozak, argued that the letters were intended to direct the actions of US personnel in its sovereign territory and recommended that Mexico raise its concerns through normal diplomatic channels.

Bilateral tension increased after the death of Mexican Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, who died on July 7 in Houston (Texas) after being shot by an ICE agent during an immigration operation, which intensified Mexico's complaints about the treatment of migrants in the custody of US authorities. EFE