Mexico Sends Stronger Diplomatic Letter to US Over Migrant Death in ICE Custody

Cancún, Quintana Roo — The Mexican government has sent a second, stronger diplomatic letter to the United States regarding the death of a 19-year-old Mexican national in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). President Claudia Sheinbaum announced the move, calling for a thorough investigation into the incident.

“Yesterday and again today, a much stronger diplomatic letter is being sent regarding this situation,” Sheinbaum said during her morning press conference in Quintana Roo. “The report is that the young man took his own life. However, we want a thorough investigation, and furthermore, this cannot be happening.”

The deceased, identified as Royer Pérez Jiménez, died on March 16 in a Florida jail that houses immigration detainees. ICE has described the death as an “apparent suicide,” but the case remains under investigation.

“Very regrettable,” Sheinbaum said when asked about the case. “We will use all means to raise our protest and support the family in everything they require.”

According to agency tallies, Pérez Jiménez is not only the second person to die in ICE custody this week. Since Donald Trump began his second term as U.S. president, 46 people have died while in ICE custody.

Corruption at Southern Border

Separately, the Southern Border Monitoring Collective, a coalition of human rights organizations, has denounced that regularization procedures for migrants in Mexico’s southern border region — many of which should be free — can cost up to 40,000 pesos due to corruption and the commercialization of rights.

The group issued an alert, also accusing that increased military and police presence on both sides of the Mexico-Guatemala border has led to violations of migrants’ rights and turned the region into “a battlefield, in which the dignity and lives of thousands of people are at permanent risk.”

According to testimonies from migrants and media reports, the group said there is a corruption network within government institutions responsible for assisting this vulnerable population. While the report does not name specific agencies, public complaints have targeted the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance and the National Migration Institute.

“The proliferation of private law firms has turned legal tools — such as amparos [injunctive relief] — into an almost obligatory step to access rights,” the collective warned. “We have documented how they are used to obtain humanitarian visas, appointments for eligibility interviews, and even for charging for the validation of academic studies, with inaccessible costs that can exceed 40,000 pesos.”

The group said these irregularities create conditions of inequality among migrants themselves and affect their physical and emotional health.

The report also details that foreign nationals deported from the United States, mainly Cubans and Venezuelans, including children and adolescents who had lived there for years, are arriving at the southern border. This has caused family separation, and in Tapachula, they often lack consular representation.

The collective added that sending migrants from other countries to southern Mexico leaves them in conditions of “extreme vulnerability.”