Mexico Requests Investigation Of 'Systemic Conditions That Led To' Death Of Citizen Under ICE Custody

Mexican authorities requested that U.S. counterparts investigate the circumstances that led to the death of a national under ICE custody in California.

The country's foreign ministry said it will "formally ask the investigation of the systemic conditions that led for such regrettable events to take place."

"We reiterate that the protection of human rights of Mexican people abroad is a priority of the Mexican government," it added.

The office also said it asked for the migrant's clinical history and custody reports, and noted it has been providing assistance to the family of the person who died.

Other deaths under ICE custody have taken place so far this year. Two migrants died in late February on the same day in separate facilities in Florida and Indiana.

Jairo Garcia-Hernandez, a 27-year-old Guatemalan national, died at Larkin Community Hospital in Miami after collapsing and becoming unresponsive, ICE said in a statement.

Officials added he had "a long history of severe medical complications" and was immunocompromised when hospitalized for fever earlier this year.

The man had been arrested in New York in 2023 on charges including weapons possession and impersonating an officer.

He was convicted in 2024 of two weapons counts and sentenced to time served. In January 2025, police encountered him again and contacted federal authorities, who transferred him into immigration custody.

Elsewhere, staff at Miami Correctional Facility in Indiana found Lorth Sim, a 59-year-old Cambodian national, unresponsive in his cell.

Sim entered the United States as a refugee in 1983 and became a lawful permanent resident in 1986. ICE said he had prior convictions including disorderly conduct, indecent exposure and larceny, and had been ordered removed from the United States in 2006. He was detained again in December 2025 and transferred into ICE custody in January 2026.

Data shows that six other people died in custody in Texas over six weeks between December and January, including three at a single El Paso detention complex.

Advocates and former officials say the deaths coincide with rapid detention expansion and reduced oversight. Nationwide, at least 30 detainees died last year.

The most scrutinized case involves 55-year-old Cuban national Geraldo Lunas Campos, who died at the Camp East Montana facility after contractors called 911 to report an apparent suicide attempt. ICE agents said Lunas Campos died from "medical distress," but a medical examiner ruled the death as a homicide, finding he became unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement. No criminal charges have been announced.