agency in the past year, Mexico's government said Wednesday. The report, given by the Mexican foreign ministry in a news conference, comes after ICE dramatically stepped up enforcement operations as part of President Donald Trump's anti-immigration crackdown. "We do not agree with these forms of detention," said Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. "We ask that human rights be respected." Six of the Mexican nationals' deaths were linked to "medical complications," and four were classified as suicides, said Roberto Velasco, the foreign ministry's undersecretary for North American affairs. Two others died in immigration raids, and one in a shootout at an ICE facility, Velasco said. Mexico said it had sent 14 diplomatic communiques in connection with the deaths and received 12 replies. Washington's response "is that there will be an investigation," said Sheinbaum, who called on the United States to ensure the causes of death were determined with certainty.

The most recent case was that of 19-year-old Royer Perez Jimenez, who was found dead in a Florida detention center. Both ICE and the Mexican government gave the presumed cause of death as suicide. The US Department of Homeland Security estimates that 11 million unauthorized immigrants were living in the United States as of 2022, with 44 percent of them from neighboring Mexico. Last year, at least 30 people died in US migrant detention centers -- the largest number since 2004, the year after ICE was created. (Bssnews)