With 20 Complaints, Mexico Maintains Defense of 17 Migrants Who Died in the US, Mexico's Foreign Relations Secretary Says
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Foreign Secretary Roberto Velasco says Mexico has filed 20 complaints with US authorities over 17 nationals who died in ICE custody or operations, pressing legal and human-rights channels.

This article by Anahí Del Ángel originally appeared in the August 19, 2026 edition of Contralínea, a Mexican investigative journalism magazine.

The Mexican government is maintaining its follow-up of 17 cases of nationals who died during operations or under the custody of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), reported the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Roberto Velasco Álvarez, who noted that the agency filed 20 complaints before US authorities to clarify the circumstances of each death.

Of the complaints, he specified that eight were filed before state prosecutors’ offices and 12 before district prosecutors’ offices in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas, the states where the deaths occurred.

Velasco explained that some authorities have only acknowledged receipt of the case files, while others have already begun to assess possible actions. In three counties—Ventura, California; Cook, Illinois; and Harris, Texas—it was reported that the corresponding measures will be analyzed.

In contrast, Florida informed the Mexican representation that it will not carry out an additional investigation in one of the cases, because its prosecutor’s office considered that its conclusions coincide with those of ICE, stating that it involved a person who “took their own life.”

The federal official reported that US$24,788 has been allocated in aid, mainly for the repatriation of the remains of the deceased, and, in addition, the Attorney General’s Office filed a complaint before the United States Department of Justice to request an investigation, while the Mexican Embassy transmitted the document to US authorities.

Likewise, he noted that Mexico brought the issue before international human rights organizations. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, responded to the letter sent by the Secretariat and expressed awareness of and concern about the situation.

On the matter of legal defense, Velasco Álvarez reported progress in three cases handled through the SRE’s External Legal Counsel Program, related to the Adelanto Center, California.

He mentioned that in one of them, evidence is being reviewed to determine the possible liability of a company in charge of medical services; in another, litigation continues with rulings favorable to the plaintiff and a trial scheduled for the summer of 2027; while in the third, a possible civil lawsuit against immigration authorities is being prepared.

As part of the next steps, the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs will continue following up on the responses from the Ventura, Cook, and Harris prosecutors’ offices, and with special emphasis will press the authorities that have not yet responded.

The head of the SRE reiterated that “the defense of the human rights of Mexico’s migrants is a priority,” and maintained that handling these cases does not seek to generate a conflict with the United States, but rather to exercise the diplomatic, legal, and treaty-established mechanisms to protect the nationals.

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