MEXICO CITY — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was killed and another wounded in the line of duty Tuesday while driving through northern Mexico, a Mexican official said.
The two agents were driving in the northern state of San Luis Potosi when they were stopped at what appeared to be a military checkpoint, said the official, who could not be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. Mexican military officials said they have no checkpoints in the area.
After they stopped, someone opened fire on them, the official said.
The agents, who were assigned to the ICE attache office in Mexico’s capital, were attacked by unknown assailants while driving between Mexico City and the northern city of Monterrey, according to an ICE statement.
Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S., Arturo Sarukhan, spoke with ICE chief John Morton to express Mexico’s condolences to ICE, according to a spokesman.
Sarukhan told Morton that Mexican authorities will work together with U.S. investigators, using every resource available to track down and apprehend the perpetrators of the attack.
Though Mexico is seeing record rates of violence from warring drug cartels and a crackdown on organized crime, it is rare for U.S. officials to be attacked.
ICE, the investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, enforces immigration laws and is responsible for arresting, detaining and deporting people who are in the U.S. illegally. It also investigates drug cases in the U.S. and Mexico and other types of trafficking.
