Statement: Mexico Must Investigate Child’s Death in Migration Custody

Washington, DC—In the first known death of a child detained by Mexican migration authorities under the current López Obrador administration, a 10-year-old Guatemalan migrant died on May 15 while in the custody of Mexico’s National Migration Institute (Instituto Nacional de Migración, INM).

According to an INM statement about the incident, the Guatemalan girl died in a hospital after being transferred from a migrant detention center in Mexico City, where she had arrived two days earlier with her mother. Mexican immigration authorities had previously detained the mother and child in the northern border state of Chihuahua.

The INM’s Citizens’ Council, which serves as an advisory and support body to the INM, has consistently raised concerns about conditions within Mexico’s migrant detention centers, including insufficient access to medical services and a lack of adequate attention to minors. Click here to read the INM’s statement about the incident (in Spanish).