Fire or ICE? Mexico Sets the Course for Latin American Resistance to US Immigration Enforcement Clampdown
A coordinated Latin American response to the actions of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) remains implausible, however strong the case for one may be.
When Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican construction worker, was shot and killed in Houston by ICE agents on 7 July, the Mexican government swore “forceful legal action” in response.
Until now, several other Latin American nations had joined Mexico’s diplomatic resistance to ICE’s extrajudicial arrests and killings. Brazil, for example, condemned ICE agents’ handcuffing of its citizens during deportation flights in January 2025, and summoned the US Embassy Chief-of-Staff in Brasilia for an explanation.
In January, Ecuador rebuked an ICE agent’s attempt to enter its consulate in Minneapolis, days after US citizen Alex Pretti was shot dead there by border agents during anti-ICE protests.
On 14 July, former Colombian President Gustavo Petro condemned the killing of his compatriot Johan Sebastián Durán in Maine as “a murder at the hands of the US government”.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has become the only Latin American head of state to go beyond rhetoric and diplomacy by pursuing cross-border strategic litigation.
Mexico’s legal action, including complaints to US prosecutors and the Department of Justice, UN appeals, and civil cease-and-desist actions against the companies that operate ICE’s detention centres – represents a step further than the rest of Latin America is willing to go.
Mexicans bear brunt of ICE violence
Mexico’s disproportionate exposure to ICE-related fatalities is a key driver of President Sheinbaum’s stronger response.
In 18 months, ICE’s anti-immigrant actions have claimed at least 62 lives, 52 in detention centres and ten during operations. According to Mexico’s Foreign Minister Robert Velasco, 14 Mexican nationals have died in ICE detention centres, while three Mexicans have been killed during ICE operations – a significantly higher number of fatalities than any other Latin American nation, piling greater domestic pressure on Sheinbaum to respond.
Lorenzo Araujo’s killing became the tipping point for the Mexican administration, compounded by the US Department for Homeland Security’s (DHS) lack of candour and unwillingness to launch thorough investigations. The DHS statement cast Araujo as an “illegal alien from Mexico” and claimed that the ICE officer who killed him was “firing his weapon in self-defense” after Araujo “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer”.
This claim conflicts with eyewitness accounts. Araujo’s son Ronaldo told The Washington Post that ICE “did not present itself in an orderly manner”, arguing that his father would otherwise have obeyed orders to stop.
Ideological disputes inhibit Latin America’s regional resistance
The regional unity and cohesion required to coordinate decisions on deportation flights, legal action or strategically targeted tariffs appear increasingly unlikely amid domestic political shifts and widening ideological divisions.
Right-leaning administrations, namely those of Argentina, El Salvador and – despite its earlier condemnation of some ICE actions – Ecuador all covet closeness with the White House, and have avoided directly challenging ICE practices in pursuit of closer ties. Alignment with Washington has secured bilateral trade deals, military cooperation, and, in Argentina’s case, a $20bn currency swap criticised by some US senators as a “bailout”.
Presidents Javier Milei, Nayib Bukele and Daniel Noboa are close allies of President Donald Trump, with similarly hardline approaches to immigration. For instance, El Salvador accepts millions of dollars to imprison deported migrants from the US in Bukele’s controversial “supermax” prisons, while Milei has announced a new National Migration Agency for Argentina modelled on ICE.
After Mexican President Sheinbaum, Colombia’s former President Gustavo Petro and Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have been the second- and third-most vocal critics of Washington’s immigration policies.
As of 7 August, Petro was succeeded by new Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, who has vowed tough crackdowns on armed drug trafficking and immigration. De la Espriella has also promised to join the so-called “Donroe Doctrine” an informal, international alliance of Trump-aligned nations which includes Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and El Salvador, aiming to curb migration, tackle drug cartels and counter Chinese influence in Latin America. It seems unlikely that De La Espriella’s administration will join Sheinbaum’s in coordinated resistance to ICE.
On 16 August Brazilian President Lula launched his campaign for what would be a historic fourth term, in which he faces Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Throughout his tenure, Lula has passed national policies to safeguard the rights of migrants, refugees and stateless persons, and criticised hardline immigration crackdowns by organisations like ICE.
Regardless of the outcome in Brazil, analysts have pointed to recent right-wing victories in Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and Peru as the receding of Latin America’s post-pandemic “pink tide”, or “marea rosa”, of left-leaning governments. Overall, this regional shift to the right signifies tougher stances on immigration and greater alignment with Washington, diminishing the prospect of coordinated anti-ICE resistance.
Mexico has set its own course – fighting ICE with fire. The Foreign Ministry has now filed 20 complaints with US authorities over the deaths of 17 Mexican nationals, only four of which have received a response so far.
All eyes remain on the pending responses to Mexico’s legal complaints from US state prosecutors’ offices and the Department of Justice. The responses received so far offer little indication that the remaining complaints will prompt substantive action, let alone a silver bullet.