Migrants Ask Sheinbaum to Strengthen Consular Protection Amid US Migration Crisis

This article originally appeared in the November 11, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. More than 100 organizations in the United States and Mexico, mostly immigrant-based, sent a letter to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo expressing their deep concern about the growing vulnerability of Mexican communities in the United States due to arbitrary arrests, mass deportations, and family separations. They asked her government to strengthen consular protection and the defense of human rights.

They warned about the impact of an increasingly hostile political and social context towards immigrants, fueled by ultranationalist rhetoric and anti-immigrant measures promoted by the government of President Donald Trump.

They made an urgent appeal to the Mexican government to take an active and firm role in upholding the rights and dignity of Mexicans abroad, demanding concrete measures to guarantee effective and humanitarian protection.

They stated that “despite the commitments expressed by the Mexican government, we have verified firsthand that consular protection services such as the Legal Assistance Program for Mexican Persons through External Legal Advisors (PALE) are not functioning as they should,” the document states.

“Mexico cannot remain indifferent to the systematic violation of human rights and the lack of due process faced by thousands of its citizens,” the organizations stated. “Concrete actions and a budget that reflects the fact that Mexicans abroad are a true priority for this government are required,” they indicated.

They demanded expanding and strengthening the Mexico Embraces You program, going beyond simply receiving migrants and providing access to programs that guarantee the right to identity, education, health, housing, and dignified livelihoods. They also called for allocating sufficient resources to the agencies responsible for reintegration and ensuring access to all program information through consulates.

They also called for improvements to the consular protection database to streamline case tracking, avoid duplication, and develop a public interface that would allow families to locate and monitor their detained or deported relatives and the services they have received; and to train all consulates to serve migrants with disabilities.

Among the signatory organizations are: Alianza Americas, the transnational network of immigrant organizations; Casa Michoacán; the Central American Resource Center; Indigenous Communities in Leadership; Durango Unido in Chicago; the Federation of Michoacán Clubs in Illinois; the Florida Immigrant Coalition; and the Southeast Immigrant Rights Network. The letter is available here.

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