What is the Mexican consulate doing to help immigrants in Philadelphia?
The Mexican consulate has an extensive network to support, by its estimates, the 192,500 Mexican people living in Pennsylvania, particularly the 39,270 believed to be undocumented.
If it feels like ICE arrests have become a daily occurrence, it’s not an unfounded hunch.
On July 9 alone, more than a dozen ICE agents took 14 people into custody at Super Gigante food market near Norristown. Half of them were Mexican, the Mexican consulate reported.
The volume of that roundup was consistent with the 13 average daily ICE arrests in Pennsylvania since President Donald Trump took office for the second time and launched a crusade against undocumented immigrants. According to an investigation by the New York Times, average daily arrests in Pennsylvania from Jan. 20 through June 10 increased 249% compared with the average daily rate in all of 2024.
While some countries refused to accept their immigrants back, the Mexican consulate has an extensive network to support, by its estimates, the 192,500 Mexican people living in Pennsylvania, particularly the 39,270 believed to be undocumented.
Worn-out U.S. Constitution book in hand, Carlos Obrador Garrido Cuesta, the head consul in Philadelphia, sat down to answer how things have changed since Inauguration Day, the importance of consular assistance, and what is happening to the undocumented community. His answers were edited for clarity and brevity.
What is the Mexican consulate doing?
Mexico has 53 consulates in the United States, most are in Texas (11) and California (10). Here, we are the only ones.
From Philadelphia, we handle Pennsylvania, Delaware and eight counties in southern New Jersey (from Lakewood to Cape May). This consulate has been here for 200 years.
We have a permanent community outreach program called “Know your rights” to prioritize protecting and defending the human rights and dignity of our people.
Last weekend we were in Pittsburgh with our mobile consulate. This is crucial in the current immigration climate, so that our community doesn’t run any risks trying to get to our headquarters.
You can see the wear and tear in my Constitution book because every day we tell our people that until the U.S. Constitution changes, all people, regardless of their immigration status, have rights enshrined in it.
In the reality that we are living in, it’s important for people to know their rights because the current narrative can be confusing.
We are adhering ourselves to the [U.S.] Constitution, but also to the Vienna Convention on consular relations that establish the right of a person in another country to request consulate assistance.
There are countries whose agreement with the U.S. is that when a detention happens, ICE has an obligation to report it to the person’s consulate. That is not our case. Only if the person in custody requests it, [agents] have the obligation to inform us.
Why does it matter to alert the Mexican consulate of an ICE raid?
Consular notification may be what tips the balance toward either possible deportation or staying with your family. If no one notifies the consulate, we may not learn that there was a detention there.
The clearest example we have is what happened at the car wash.
On January 28, right at the beginning of [Trump’s second term], the largest raid we had ever had in Philadelphia took place. Agents arrived without a warrant, responding to a tip-off that there were undocumented workers.
They detained everyone they could catch, among them a U.S. citizen who was handcuffed, the son of one of our fellow countrymen. A relative notified us, within minutes we were there accompanying his wife and son.
Seven people, six of them Mexican, were detained. Two decided not to request consular notification. When the agents gave them a voluntary departure document to sign, those young men did so, because they had very little hope of being able to stay.
The other four men didn’t sign and requested consular notification. Thanks to that, three are now free, waiting to go to immigration court, with their family, reunited, here.
In other cases, we also talk to the employers because it could be that when the worker was detained, the employer kept their compensation money. It happens often. We make sure to recover it so they can have it even if they are deported.
What happens after Mexican people are taken into ICE custody in Pennsylvania?
The person is going to be transferred to the ICE office [in Philadelphia], which is what happened with the people from Gigante.
They are fingerprinted. Officers check their records, do their job, and then see where to send them, maybe Moshannon [Valley Processing Center] or the federal prison in Philadelphia.
[Immigrants] have the right not to sign anything, especially if it’s in a language they don’t understand. They have the right to ask for consular notification, because that’s when we come in.
We have a 24/7 number ICE can call: 215-266-3740. (People can also report ICE raids there).
Many times they might be undergoing medical treatment, are cancer survivors, or require constant medication. Identifying these vulnerabilities is crucial because many times, out of ignorance or fear, they don’t say anything. We can get their medication for them.
We have a Program of Legal Advice Abroad (PALE) that is completely free. It is a legal aid fund that the Mexican government has earmarked for all consulates. The program already existed, but President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo is allocating more resources so that the consulates have options for hiring lawyers and no limit when it comes to defending Mexicans.
We are not going to give them lawyers if they say “I want to go back.” If they want to fight their case, we will put them in contact with our immigration lawyers. They will go to court and the deportation will be halted.
What happens to Mexican people when they are deported?
Consular assistance ends with deportation, but we have the “Mexico te abraza” program.
When a person is deported, they often arrive without shoelaces, belts, and other things that were taken at the detention center. Agents give them a white bag with some of their belongings, but they arrive with practically nothing.
On the Mexican side, they are given a card with 2,000 pesos (a little more than $100). Another agency pays for their free transportation wherever they need to go in the republic.
The private sector offered 65,000 jobs for returning immigrants. People from the labor administration can help them apply for jobs on the spot. And folks from the Social Security Administration register them for free healthcare, medicines and doctors.
After everything, where does the relationship between ICE and the Mexican consulate stand?
We have to have good communication with ICE authorities in the region because we have to do our work. It is not collaborating. They respect my work, I respect their work.
Our priority is the Mexican community. We are here to serve them and we have to protect them, their rights and their dignity. To do our job is to defend our community.