Mexico’s consulate in Los Angeles helps thousands of citizens each week, assisting them with registering births, obtaining passports and, increasingly since President Donald Trump’s second term began, accessing legal help for loved ones who have fallen afoul of his administration’s immigration policies.
Although it serves the country’s biggest Mexican community, all 53 Mexican consulates in the U.S. provide services that make Mexican people’s lives easier — just like the nine U.S. consulates in Mexico improve the lives of Americans south of the border.
The U.S. State Department, though, has launched a review that might lead to the closure of an unknown number of Mexican consulates. Although it hasn’t said why, the review is happening against the backdrop of the immigration crackdown, some thorny bilateral issues and far-right theories that the consulates have been interfering in U.S. politics and encouraging Mexicans to migrate northward.
Azucena Aviles, a 33-year-old mother who drove more than an hour to the LA consulate this month to renew her Mexican passport and get one for her daughter, said consular services are invaluable, especially in California, which is home to nearly 13 million people of Mexican descent, including anestimated 1.7 millionwho are in the U.S. illegally.
“It wouldn’t be fair if they messed with the Mexican people, especially with our support systems, which come from the Mexican consulate and which, in some way, help or protect our fellow Mexicans,” she said.
Trump has been exerting growing pressure on Mexico, with questions looming over issues including human rights, national sovereignty and regional diplomacy.
His administration, though, has given only the broadest of explanations for launching its review.
“Department of State is constantly reviewing all aspects of American foreign relations to ensure they are in line with the President’s America First foreign policy agenda and advance American interests,” Dylan Johnson, Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs, wrote in an email.
Among the possible reasons for the review is that it could somehow fit into the Trump administration’s immigration efforts to deport people in the U.S. illegally. The largest contingent of such people — an estimated 4.3 million, according to the Pew Research Center — are Mexican.
Relations between the two countries could also play a role, with Trump increasing pressure on Mexico in the run-up to free trade negotiations important to both nations’ economies, taking a more aggressive approach toward the U.S.’s southern neighbor and even threatening to take military action against Mexican cartels.
Source: VidNews » Feed
