US steps up ICE raids – Mexico rages
The US immigration police ICE has significantly stepped up its efforts against migrants over the summer.
The Mexican president wants to initiate legal proceedings against the US after several Mexican citizens have died in connection with arrests and in migrant detention.
ICE agents shot and killed Mexican citizen Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas, last week, as he was on his way to work with his brother and two other men. Salgado Araujo did not have a residence permit, but ICE is said to have been looking for another man who was traveling in his car.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has claimed that Salgado Araujo tried to run over an ICE officer with his car, but this has been contradicted by the other men in the car. The agents were not wearing body cameras.
Sparking anger
The shooting has sparked anger in Mexico, and the country's President Claudia Sheinbaum has formally requested that US prosecutors investigate deaths of migrants who died in ICE custody or during raids. However, the US has no legal obligation to act.
Mexico has also sent letters of demand to the US companies that operate detention facilities where Mexican migrants have died.
A total of 17 Mexican citizens have died since President Donald Trump began his campaign to deport millions of undocumented migrants from the US, 14 of them in migrant detention and another three in ICE raids.
More arrests
The number of arrests carried out by ICE has doubled this summer compared to earlier in the year, according to information provided to The New York Times. About 2,000 migrants are arrested daily. Deporting one million undocumented migrants a year was one of Donald Trump's campaign promises.
Critics in human rights organizations say that this ambition leads to overly aggressive methods in the hunt for undocumented migrants. ICE agents have shot more than 20 people since September, and ten people have been killed in connection with the interventions. Another man, a 26-year-old Colombian, was shot dead in his car during an ICE operation in the state of Maine on Monday.
On Tuesday, DHS announced that ICE agents have been instructed to stop cars until further notice, until they receive new training on how to conduct traffic stops, Fox News reports. However, President Trump on Wednesday urged ICE to continue with the traffic stops, calling them one of the agency’s “most important and effective tools for fighting crime.”
ICE
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is formally a federal police agency with more than 20,000 employees and more than 400 offices in the United States and around the world.
ICE was founded in 2003 in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Its mission is to protect the United States from cross-border crime and illegal immigration. Unlike the US Border Patrol, however, ICE operates domestically. ICE agents are allowed to stop and arrest people suspected of violating immigration laws.
The agency has received greatly increased resources and has made thousands of arrests since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025. Many of the arrests have taken place in public places, which has led to several clashes with demonstrators protesting the agency’s work.
The agency only has the right to use force when deemed necessary and in accordance with American law.
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