State Department Reviewing All 53 Mexican Consulates in U.S.

Mexico’s consular network in the United States is by far the largest foreign consular presence in the country. The 53 posts are strategically distributed in cities and regions with high concentrations of Mexican nationals and Mexican-American communities — from Los Angeles and Chicago to El Paso, Houston, and New York. These consulates handle an enormous volume of services: issuing passports and consular identification cards known as matrícula consular, providing legal aid and notary services, assisting nationals who are detained or face deportation, and facilitating communication between Mexican citizens and their home government. According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, there are approximately 10 to 11 million Mexican-born individuals residing in the United States, making this consular infrastructure critically important for a substantial portion of the population. Any closures would directly affect access to those services, potentially displacing hundreds of thousands of appointments and creating significant logistical hardship.