The Trump administration is conducting a review of the 53 Mexican consulates in the United States, a move that could lead some of them to be closed, a State Department official said Thursday. For Mexican citizens living in the U.S., those consulates are not abstract diplomatic décor; they provide identification documents, legal assistance and other needs. Now the machinery of U.S. foreign policy is weighing whether to shut some of that down.
Who Holds the Levers
No reason was given for the review or what it would entail, but it is likely to further inflame tensions between the neighboring countries. The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, a small reminder of how decisions with real consequences are often floated through the apparatus without accountability.
Dylan Johnson, U.S. assistant secretary of state for public affairs, said, “The 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.” That is the language of hierarchy speaking plainly: foreign relations are being aligned with a presidential agenda and “American interests,” while the people who rely on those consulates are left to absorb the fallout.
Who Pays for the Power Games
Mexico’s network of diplomatic outposts is by far the most extensive in the United States. Its consulates help Mexican citizens living in the U.S. by providing identification documents, legal assistance and other needs. If closures happen, the burden lands on ordinary people who need papers, help, and access to services, not on the officials making the call.
President Donald Trump has engaged more aggressively in Latin America than any U.S. president in recent decades, capturing Venezuela’s leader in a military raid and pushing massive reforms in Venezuela, imposing an oil blockade on Cuba, getting involved in Argentine and Honduran elections, and threatening military action on Mexican cartels. The pattern is familiar: pressure from above, consequences below, and the language of “interests” used to dress up coercion.
Tensions, Scandals, and the Border of Control
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought to maintain a strong relationship with Trump and offset U.S. threats by cracking down more heavily on Mexican cartels, resulting in a dip in homicides. But a series of scandals in recent weeks have set off a political firestorm in Mexico.
First, two CIA agents died in an anti-narcotics operation with local authorities in northern Chihuahua state, leading to days of contradictions by Mexican authorities. Then last week, the U.S. indicted a number of officials in Sheinbaum’s party, including a top ally, on drug-trafficking offenses. Earlier this week, Trump once again remarked, “If Mexico doesn’t act, we will.” The message is blunt: comply, or the threat escalates.
The review of the consulates sits inside that larger pressure campaign. It is not just about buildings or bureaucracy; it is about leverage over people, borders, and political obedience.
What the State Has Done Before
The U.S. has in recent years closed a Chinese consulate in Houston and three Russian facilities, including a consulate in San Francisco and outposts near Washington and New York. The current review follows that same pattern of using diplomatic infrastructure as a tool in state rivalry, with ordinary people caught in the middle of decisions made far above them.
Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.