Around 400 employees of Mexican consulates in the United States face the risk of losing their visas and becoming undocumented

For Rosa Elvira, four decades of work at the Consulate of Mexico in Los Angeles are about to end in the worst possible way. Her last day on the job will be August 21. Her dismissal is a consequence of a U.S. diplomatic policy that over the past decade has shortened the validity period of visas granted to contracted consular workers. But losing her job is not Rosa Elvira’s only concern. Her immigration permit will expire next summer and, if she decides to remain in the country after it lapses, she would become an undocumented immigrant.

“I would be left vulnerable, undocumented and without work,” Rosa Elvira said at the end of July during a hearing at the diplomatic office. She did not disclose her surname. Her current boss, Consul Carlos González, heard her request and received a letter addressed to President Claudia Sheinbaum in which she asks, at least, to remain in the position until December, when the work permits are expected to expire.

Rosa Elvira’s case is not an isolated one. It is estimated that around 400 employees who serve thousands of Mexican immigrants at 53 consulates in the United States are about to lose their jobs because their A-2 visas will expire. They are mainly responsible for receiving documentation and handling procedures for compatriots applying for passports, consular IDs, birth certificates or voter registration cards. That is why there are concerns that this mass dismissal could compromise — precisely at a time of intense political turmoil — the functioning of a consular network responsible for serving more than 38 million Mexicans living in the United States.

Until about a decade ago, roughly 1,700 consular workers held A-2 visas of indefinite duration, with annual renewals handled by Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SRE). Thanks to that scheme, employees like Rosa Elvira built careers and put down roots in the United States. They are classified as Independent Professional Service Providers (PSPI).

The situation changed in 2016, when the Barack Obama administration modified the conditions of those permits: it limited their validity to five years and removed the possibility of renewal. Since then, the Mexican government has secured temporary extensions through diplomatic negotiations. During Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s six-year term those permits were extended, and the Foreign Ministry is now trying to preserve that flexibility. Those measures, however, did not prevent the number of workers holding those visas from falling drastically, to about 400 — less than a quarter of the original workforce.

Talks are taking place amid rising diplomatic tension between the two countries, marked by Washington’s review of the 53 Mexican consulates on its soil, a move that could lead to the closure of some offices. Washington asserts that its southern neighbor sought to influence the November midterm elections, an accusation Mexican authorities have denied.

“They don’t want to return”

Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco Álvarez described the problem as a “complex situation.” He explained that, after a lack of a lasting solution during Enrique Peña Nieto’s government, the López Obrador administration opened negotiations with Washington to delay the forced departure of these workers.

“We have been negotiating since the last administration to extend the stay of these personnel in the United States, and as a result we have managed to extend the validity of those visas for more than eight years,” the official said during President Sheinbaum’s morning press conference on July 7. “We will continue to seek options, both diplomatically and administratively... If it is necessary for some people to return to Mexico [and see] what alternatives the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs can offer them, we will do so.”

Another factor complicates the matter: not everyone plans to return to Mexico immediately, whether alone or with their families. A Mexican foreign service official who spoke to EL PAÍS on condition of anonymity said some former consular employees have even chosen to remain undocumented after losing their A-2 visa. “They have lived in the United States for many years; they have children, partners, a whole life here. They do not want to start again over there,” the official said. “There are more problems for those with longer tenures.”

But it is precisely those roots that the diplomatic policy adopted in 2016 seeks to prevent, a stance the Trump administration was unwilling to change. “A-2 visas are for temporary travel to the United States for the exclusive purpose of performing official functions or activities on behalf of a foreign government, and are not intended to facilitate visa holders putting down roots in the United States,” reads a written statement the State Department sent to EL PAÍS.

Neither that department nor the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs answered this newspaper’s questions about how many Mexican consular workers have lost their A-2 visas or how many more will lose them in the coming months.

A broken promise

The only dismissal acknowledged by the Mexican Foreign Ministry is that of Rosa Elvira, still employed at the Consulate in Los Angeles. “In the case of ‘Rosita,’ the State Department notified us that her accreditation would end on August 21 by virtue of her age,” Consul González explained at the hearing where she asked him for help to avoid losing her job. “This is the result of a decision by the U.S. government… It is not necessarily within our jurisdiction,” the official clarified.

The source at the Mexican Foreign Ministry consulted by this newspaper said the A-2 visa scheme was also economically convenient for the Mexican state. By keeping these workers under that regime, their seniority was limited, benefits were reduced and for decades they were kept on low wages, despite having taken on much of the workload in the consulates.

One of the alternatives the López Obrador government reportedly considered, the source said, was adding these employees to the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs’ payroll. That proposal, however, was never implemented.

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