At the time that this post was written, at least 50 individuals had died in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The deaths were due to a lack of care for people with chronic medical issues like heart disease and diabetes, and, thanks to a shocking lack of oversight, the completion of suicide by individuals under extreme mental duress in custody or who suffered from pre-existing mental health conditions. 17 of the dead were Mexican citizens. On Thursday morning, the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, made it clear in a press conference that her government would be looking for justice for Mexican citizens killed while in ICE detention.
Foreign Affairs Minister Roberto Velasco reported that 17 Mexicans have died in ICE detention centers or ICE operations since the start of the second Trump administration, most recently Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was shot by an ICE officer in Houston on Tuesday. Velasco said Mexico has sent 11 diplomatic notes of protest and raised the issue with the U.N. and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, but that President Sheinbaum has now instructed officials to take "forceful legal actions," including criminal complaints filed directly with U.S. state and federal prosecutors and civil cease-and-desist letters against the private companies that operate ICE detention centers.
When asked to be clear about who the Mexican government would be going after, Sheinbaum stated that the government would be filing criminal complaints with the U.S. Attorney's Office concerning deaths that the Mexican government views as flat-out homicides. Complaints would also be filed over perceived human rights violations committed against Mexican citizens and for cases where Mexican nationals were kept in the shitty conditions that come part & parcel with ICE's privately run concentration camps. All of this comes in the same week as a Mexican citizen was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Houston, Texas.
The announcement from Sheinbaum's government comes at a time when Mexico and Canada have been listening to the bullshit falling out of Grandpa Puddin' Brains' cakehole about free trade and how he feels that the deal, which the Asshole-In-Chief himself signed, was terrible for America. It wouldn't be the first time that public outrage has altered the course of trade between nations.
