Trump administration strips visas from Mexican officials as part of wider cartel crackdown

The Trump administration has revoked the visas of more than 50 Mexican officials and politicians for alleged connections to various cartels. More officials are likely to lose their visas as the administration looks to both cut off the cartels and increase pressure on the Mexican government to take a harder line against the criminal elements within the country.

'This situation occurs in a complex binational context.'

In a statement to Reuters, a senior U.S. State Department official said that visas held by foreign officials can be revoked "at any time" if the official is engaging in "activities that run contrary to America's national interest."

Mexico is not the first Latin American country to have officials lose their U.S. visas. According to the Guardian, more than 20 judges in Brazil have had their visas revoked, and 14 politicians and businessmen in Costa Rica have lost their visas.

Only a few Mexican officials have publicly stated that their visas have been revoked, as visa records are private under U.S. law. The governor of Baja California, Marina del Pilar Avila, stated in May that both she and her husband had their visas revoked. In a post on X, she wrote that "this situation occurs in a complex binational context."

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Photo by Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / Contributor via Getty Images

Her husband, Carlos Torres Torres, is a former member of the House of Deputies, the lower house of Mexico's Congress. Both Torres and Avila are members of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum's Morena party.

These visa crackdowns are part of a wider Trump administration policy of taking a hard line against the criminal elements in South and Central America. In addition to increased diplomatic pressure on Mexico and other Latin American countries, the administration has deployed Navy assets to the Caribbean and conducted lethal strikes on boats being used by cartels to smuggle drugs.

Despite reports that many of the Mexican officials who have lost their visas are members of the ruling Morena party, the U.S. State Department told Reuters that the U.S. has "a good working relationship" with the Mexican government and "look[s] forward to continuing to advance our bilateral relationship in the interest of the America first foreign policy agenda."

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