MEXICO CITY: Mexico will press for criminal charges to be brought in the United States over the death of Mexican immigrants amid President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign, officials said Thursday.
At least 17 Mexican citizens have died while held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or during federal raids since Trump returned to the White House last year, Mexico's Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco said.
The most recent case was on Tuesday, when 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado was shot dead by an ICE agent while in his work truck in Houston.
The US government has said that the agent fired in "self-defense" after Salgado, who had lived and worked in the United States for over 30 years, attempted to evade arrest and "weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer."
Salgado is believed to be the first person shot and killed by federal immigration agents since two Americans were gunned down in Minneapolis in January, sparking protests.
Velasco, speaking at Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum's daily press conference, vowed to skip "the diplomatic sphere and go directly to prosecutors in the United States."
Sheinbaum, for her part, said that she will deliver a "request to private businesses overseeing these detention centers, requesting them to respect the human rights of Mexicans."
The foreign ministry will also seek support from Mexican federal prosecutors, she said without specifying, and will demand UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk to push for protection of Mexicans held in detainment facilities.
The remarks come at a time of heightened US-Mexico diplomatic friction, following revelations of US intelligence operations on Mexican soil and the launch of fraught trade negotiations.
US Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia has demanded an investigation of the federal agency's actions, and told television station FOX 26 in Houston that Salgado and his brother were not the intended targets of immigration officials.
Garcia said ICE told her a person in Salgado's vehicle had an administrative warrant and that the agents involved in the incident were not wearing body cameras.
"This man had no criminal history. Are we really safer because he died?" Garcia said.
"We cannot accept ICE's version of the story."