THE Mexican government on Tuesday protested the deaths of its citizens in United States immigration custody as President Claudia Sheinbaum pushes back against US President Donald Trump’s policies on multiple fronts, including Cuba.

The popular left-wing Mexican leader hit back on Tuesday, a day after Mexican citizen Alejandro Cabrera Clemente died in a Louisiana detention centre of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice), the fifteenth death of a Mexican citizen in US custody in little over a year.

Mexico’s government quickly called the deaths “unacceptable” and the Ice detention centres “incompatible with human rights standards and the protection of life.”

During a Tuesday press briefing, Ms Sheinbaum said that she requested investigations into the deaths of the 15 migrants, and instructed Mexican consulates to visit detention centres daily.

President Sheinbaum has also taken a firm line on the right of Mexico to forge its own relationship with Cuba without US interference.

After the illegal fuel blockade was imposed on Cuba by the US the Mexican president accused the US government of “suffocating” Cubans with sanctions. 

The Mexican leader has sent shipments of food and other aid, and even donated $1,000 (£753) of her own money to relief efforts.