US Returns Letter in Which Mexico Asks to Review ICE

ByArturo Sánchez Jiménez

This article by Arturo Sánchez Jiménez originally appeared in the July 18, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

After the State Department made public that it returned to Mexico’s ambassador, Roberto Lazzeri, the “cease and desist” letter that the Mexican government sent early this week to the private company that operates the Adelanto detention center in California—where four Mexicans have died—Mexico’s embassy in the United States reacted immediately: it stated that it took note of the gesture, but insisted that the missive was issued in the exercise of its consular protection function and with full respect for the laws and authorities of the United States.

As this newspaper reported this week, the Adelanto center is operated by GEO Group, one of the leading private immigration detention companies in the United States.

The State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs reported yesterday on the social network X that its head, Michael Kozak, met with Lazzeri and returned Mexico’s letter, which he characterized as an attempt to “direct the actions of United States government personnel operating on sovereign territory” of that country. Kozak recommended that Mexico “share its concerns through diplomatic channels, as is customary.”

Shortly after, the Mexican embassy also noted on X that Lazzeri was at the State Department as part of “the diplomatic outreach that the government of Mexico has promoted this week with US authorities,” on the occasion of the deaths of Mexicans in immigration custody in Adelanto.

So far, 18 nationals have died in the custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) service or in immigration operations during the second administration of President Donald Trump.

In the meeting with Kozak, the ambassador specified that the letter “is a communication addressed to the private company that operates said center, in which it is urged to abide by the applicable protocols and to fully respect the human rights of the persons under its care.”

The embassy stressed that the missive “was issued in the exercise of the consular protection function recognized by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to which both countries are party, and with full respect for the laws, authorities, and institutions of the United States.”

Regarding the return, the embassy said that Mexico “takes note” of it and affirmed that “the concerns that motivated it have been formally raised through diplomatic channels, both in today’s meeting and in the meetings held during the week with the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.”

The letter is part of a series of actions undertaken on Monday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to the death of nationals. The Mexican agency has stated that the document sent to GEO Group demands that it “immediately cease the actions or omissions that led to these deaths, such as impeding access to prompt and expeditious medical care, as well as the application of policies incompatible with medical and prison standards,” and “constitutes the first formal step toward the eventual filing of civil actions.”