Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday condemned the deaths of three Mexican nationals after they were taken into custody by U.S. immigration authorities this year.
“This can’t be happening,” Sheinbaum told reporters, referring to the death of a 19-year-old at a detention center in Florida on Monday and two others who died earlier this year.
“The report says the young man killed himself,” Sheinbaum said. “Nonetheless, we want a full investigation.”
Royer Perez Jimenez was arrested in January and charged with fraud for impersonation and misdemeanor resisting an officer, ICE said in a statement reported by CBS Miami.
He was found in his cell at the Glades County Detention Center at 2:34 a.m. local time on March 16, CBS Miami reported. Prison staff “immediately” began life-saving efforts, the agency said. The cause of death was “presumed suicide” but remains under investigation, ICE said.
Other Mexicans who died while caught in President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration include Heber Sanchez Domínguez, 34, in January. Domínguez was in ICE custody for six days after being arrested for driving without a license, and was awaiting a hearing when he was found “hanging by the neck and unresponsive in his sleeping quarters” at a Georgia facility at about 2:05 a.m. local time, DHS said at the time. A 48-year-old Mexican man died in ICE custody in March.
The Mexican government said Thursday that “these deaths are becoming unacceptable” and that officials “won’t hold back in using available legal and diplomatic tools to defend the rights” of Mexicans abroad.
“We’re going to use all measures to make our protests and support the family in everything they need,” Sheinbaum said.
At least 30 migrants died in US detention centers last year, the highest number since 2004, a year after the creation of ICE. There have been at least 12 deaths so far this year, including that of an Afghan man who served with the U.S. military, a Haitian man whose family said his untreated toothache became a deadly infection, and a Cuban immigrant whose death in a Texas facility has been ruled a homicide.
Mr. Trump has promised the most extensive deportation program for undocumented migrants in U.S. history and ICE has been at the forefront of often violent raids across U.S. cities.
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