The U.S. State Department “returned” the letters presented by the Mexican ambassador to the United States, Roberto Lazzeri, in which he rebuked the U.S. authorities for the abuse of the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) against immigrants.
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Lusa
Lazzeri delivered the letters to a head of the Western Hemisphere Department of Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, Michael Kozak, who on Friday “returned the letters from Mexico” because he considered that “they intended to guide the actions of the personnel of the United States Government in their sovereign territory,” the State Department stressed in a press release published on social networks.
Kozak “also recommended Mexico to present its concerns through conventional diplomatic channels,” Washington said.
The Mexican ambassador had previously sent a letter to the private company managing the Adelanto detention centre in California, “in which the company is urged to comply with the applicable protocols and to fully respect the human rights of the persons in their custody”, following the death of at least four Mexicans.
The Adelanto detention centre is managed by GEO Group, one of the leading private immigrant detention centres management companies in the United States of America.
Lazzeri’s letter was issued “in the exercise of the consular protection function recognized by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, of which both countries are part, and with full respect for the laws, authorities and institutions of the United States”.
In response to the return of letters, the Mexican Embassy reported that the country “takes note” of this fact and that “the concerns that motivated them were formally presented by diplomatic means” in meetings with the Department of Homeland Security and the ICE.
Thus, Mexico “will continue to monitor closely each case and work in coordination with the US authorities on the basis of the principles of respect for sovereignty, shared responsibility, mutual trust and collaboration without subordination”.
The letters are part of a series of measures announced on Monday by the Mexican Foreign Office, which provides for correspondence to be sent to the detention centers where Mexican citizens died, so that “the actions or omissions that led to these deaths would immediately cease, such as preventing access to rapid and immediate medical care, as well as the application of policies incompatible with medical and prison standards”.
These letters “are the first formal step towards the possible interposition of civil actions”.