Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum vowed Tuesday to take a harder line against the U.S. over the deaths of Mexican migrants in its immigration detention centres.
Sheinbaum had previously responded to U.S. President Donald Trump‘s anti-immigration provocations by defending Mexico’s sovereignty while meeting his requests to crack down on drug cartel activity. At the identical time, the specter of tariffs and other economic or military-style sanctions loomed.
But, because the variety of Mexicans and other migrants dying in U.S. detention centres increases, and within the wake of the Trump administration’s decision to impose an energy blockade on Cuba — a Mexican ally — Sheinbaum seems to have modified her tune.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, she called the deaths “unacceptable” and the ICE detention centres “incompatible with human rights standards and the protection of life.”
“We’re going to defend Mexicans at every level,” she said. “There are numerous Mexicans whose only crime just isn’t having papers,” she continued.
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The Mexican government also said it had requested investigations into the deaths and ordered Mexican consulates to make each day visits to detention centres.
Sheinbaum said her government would raise the deaths in detention centres to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and was considering appealing to the United Nations. Her government already said it could support lawsuits within the U.S. filed by detainees over poor conditions.
FILE – Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum gives a media briefing from the National Palace in Mexico City, Oct. 2, 2024, the morning after her inauguration.
AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File
Her sentiments appear to echo the mood of some Americans. In keeping with a February AP-NORC poll, about six in 10 U.S. adults say Trump has “gone too far” in sending federal immigration agents into American cities.
“Growing dissatisfaction around ICE activities in the USA creates a more comfortable platform for members of the Mexican government to lift concerns concerning the fate of Mexican residents,” Carin Zissis, vice-president of content strategy for the Council of the Americas, told the AP.
Sheinbaum had previously described herself as maintaining a “cool head” within the face of pressure exerted by Trump on Latin American countries in recent months. This 12 months, his administration has captured and deposed Venezuela’s president, imposed an oil blockade on Cuba and threatened military intervention against Mexican cartels.
“This can’t be a chance for the U.S. to invade our sovereignty,” Sheinbaum said in February after the Trump administration moved to formally designate eight Latin American crime organizations as “foreign terrorist organizations.”
“We would like to be clear, given this designation, that we don’t negotiate our sovereignty,” she added. “There might be no interference or subordination.”
“Each countries want to cut back the consumption of medication and the trafficking of illegal drugs,” the Mexican president concluded.
While Trump has taken public jabs at Sheinbaum — at one point suggesting cartels have greater control over Mexico than her government — he has also acknowledged an amicability between them.
“She is actually a pleasant person, I like her lots,” he said last month, proceeding to mimic the Mexican leader in a high voice.
— With files from The Associated Press
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