MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government on Tuesday protested the deaths of its citizens in U.S. immigration custody as President Claudia Sheinbaum pushes back against U.S. President Trump’s policies on multiple fronts.
The progressive Mexican leader has walked a careful line with Mr. Trump for more than a year, addressing provocations with a measured tone and meeting U.S. requests to crack down on criminal cartels more so than her predecessors, in an effort to offset threats of tariffs and U.S. military action against the gangs.
But in the wake of mounting deaths of Mexican citizens in custody of immigration officials and the Trump administration’s decision to impose an energy blockade on Cuba — a key Mexican ally — Ms. Sheinbaum has taken a harder line.
“We’ve seen the president raise her tone,” said Palmira Tapia, an analyst for Mexico’s Center for Economic Research and Teaching. “There’s been a shift, and we’ve seen Sheinbaum be more vocal than before.”
Ms. Sheinbaum’s latest rebuke came one day after 49-year-old Mexican citizen Alejandro Cabrera Clemente died in a detention center in Louisiana of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, the fifteenth death of a Mexican citizen in U.S. custody in little over a year.
Mexico’s government quickly called the deaths “unacceptable” and the ICE detention centers “incompatible with human rights standards and the protection of life.”
During a Tuesday press briefing Ms. Sheinbaum added that she requested investigations into the deaths of the 15 migrants, and instructed Mexican consulates to visit detention centers daily.
She said her government would raise the deaths in detention centers to Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and was considering appealing to the United Nations. Her government already said it would support lawsuits in the U.S. filed by detainees over poor conditions.
“We are going to defend Mexicans at every level,” Ms. Sheinbaum said, adding that “there are many Mexicans whose only crime is not having papers.”
The moves by Ms. Sheinbaum’s government come on top of mounting disapproval in the U.S. of Mr. Trump’s immigration enforcement. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say Mr. Trump has “gone too far” in sending federal immigration agents into American cities, according to a February AP-NORC poll.
“Growing dissatisfaction around ICE activities in the United States creates a more comfortable platform for members of the Mexican government to raise concerns about the fate of Mexican citizens,” said Carin Zissis, vice president of content strategy for the Council of the Americas.
While Mr. Trump has taken public jabs at Ms. Sheinbaum — at one point suggesting cartels have greater control over Mexico than her government — he’s also regularly made nods to their amicable relationship.
“She is really a nice person, I like her a lot,” he said last month, proceeding to imitate the Mexican leader in a high voice.
But shifting geopolitics in the region, and the mounting deaths in ICE facilities, have also opened the door for Ms. Sheinbaum to take a firmer stance.
The main point of contention between the two governments has been Cuba. Solidarity with the U.S. adversary has been a cornerstone of Mexico’s political ethos since the Cuban revolution, which Fidel Castro, Ernesto “Che” Guevara and a group of exiles famously planned while in Mexico City. It’s a particular sticking point with her progressive Morena party, whose founder ushered Ms. Sheinbaum into office.
She has described Mr. Trump’s energy blockade of Cuba as “unjust” and accused the U.S. government of “suffocating” Cubans with sanctions.
The White House offered no comment on Tuesday about Ms. Sheinbaum’s tougher stances, nor did it comment on the rising number of deaths of Mexican nationals in ICE custody.
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