On Monday morning, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian man, was shot and killed by ICE officers in Maine. This comes less than a week after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant who lived in Houston, was shot and killed by an ICE officer while driving to work.After what felt like a week of terror, the Trump administration has ordered ICE to “halt most vehicle stops while carrying out operations across the country,” according to The New York Times. But will this change anything at all? Despite a growing feeling of hopelessness that the U.S. government will continue to impose unjust violence on immigrants with impunity, there’s one Latin American country attempting to do something about it. Last week, Mexico’s government announced that it intends to file criminal complaints against the U.S. over the deaths of 14 Mexican citizens in ICE custody, as well as three others who have been killed during ICE operations, including Araujo. Mexico also plans to pursue legal action against the private companies that run ICE facilities, according to Reuters. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said what is happening in the U.S. reflects a broader pattern of Mexican citizens being mistreated.From a legal standpoint, it’s hard to imagine the U.S. government facing meaningful legal consequences, especially given that it oversees its own immigration enforcement and the fact that Mexico is filing the criminal complaint directly with U.S. prosecutors. But Mexico’s response is less about actually changing American immigration policy than it is about taking a symbolic but significant stance against these repeated, unjust ICE killings.As a Latino American, one of the hardest parts about watching ICE target immigrants since Trump took office is knowing how powerless many of them feel. Many in our community personally know people who have spent years building lives in the U.S., have no criminal records and work demanding jobs for very little money. These are people, both documented and undocumented, who contribute to their communities and have families, all while living with the fear that they might be detained at any moment. Guerrero, for example, had legal work permits and a Social Security number, according to reports. He had no reason to be stopped by police.Our government has continuously sent a message that undocumented immigrants can be arrested, deported — or in the worst cases, killed — with little to no accountability. Even if a criminal complaint doesn’t change that, Mexico is sending a message that many immigrants desperately need to hear right now: that their lives are worth defending, that their deaths deserve scrutiny, and that the world is watching. RelatedMexicoU.S. Immigration and Customs EnforcementImmigrants latinosLatino Voices