The State Department review, first reported in early May, has not been explained publicly. Spokespeople did not make themselves available for an interview and did not respond to requests for comment about the review’s scope, its timeline, or what criteria would be used to decide which consulates to close. The lack of clarity has deepened anxiety among the millions of people who rely on Mexico’s 53 consulates — the largest consular network operated by any country in the United States — for routine documentation and increasingly for legal help in the face of the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement.
Carlos Gonzalez, a 58-year-old construction worker from Jalisco, visited the Los Angeles consulate this week to renew his passport and obtain a birth certificate for his U.S.-born daughter. “If they close this place, I don’t know where I’d go,” he said. “Everything official, you need to do it here.” Azucena Avilés, a community organizer who works with Mexican families in Southern California, said the consulate has become a crucial clearinghouse for referrals to immigration attorneys as detentions have risen.
The review could have broad consequences for bilateral relations and cross-border commerce. “The closure of consulates would not only complicate the lives of millions of Mexicans who rely on their services, but it would also represent a violation of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations,” said Arturo Sarukhan, a former Mexican ambassador to the United States. “It would send a very negative signal about the state of the relationship.” The United States maintains nine consulates in Mexico that provide similar services to American citizens and businesses; the reciprocal network