Mexicans in NC to protest treatment at Mexican Consulate in Raleigh
Mexican nationals in North Carolina are protesting alleged unfair treatment from staff and long wait times for services at the Mexican Consulate office in Raleigh.
A peaceful protest is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 8, outside the Consulate office at 431 Raleigh View Road.
Mexicans living across the state have taken to social media demanding that the consulate “treat them with respect” and serve the community in a “more organized manner.”
René García, who is originally from Puebla but lives in Franklin County, and her friend Bertha Lopez from Oaxaca and living in Raleigh are two organizers.
In an interview with The News & Observer, García said she and López met with Consul General Claudia Velasco on Tuesday afternoon.
“The main thing we talked about was the unfair treatment we’ve been receiving,” García said. “A lot of times we don’t have certain personal documents with us in the United States. And we might not have living family members in Mexico who can help us retrieve them. Staff won’t help us find alternative options to obtain them, and we can’t just go back ourselves.”
The Consulate General of Mexico in Raleigh serves both North and South Carolina. Services include passports, consular identification cards for Mexicans in the U.S., birth certificates and notary services related to Mexicans’ government ID.
The Consulate learned of the upcoming protest through Facebook, media spokesperson Oscar Solís said in an email Thursday.
“We will be attentive to the demands that they raise that day and respond accordingly,” Solís said.
Document workload
According to the Consulate, 42 people work at the Raleigh office, including diplomats. In contrast, there are an estimated 1.36 million Mexican nationals in their jurisdiction between the two Carolinas.
Solís said the pandemic didn’t stop the number of requests coming in.
“Despite the pandemic and the reduction in activities last year, 89,357 documents were issued from January to December 2020 (mainly passports and ID cards, among many others),” he said. “Through September this year, we’ve issued a total of 91,179 documents so far.”
The same goes for the number of appointments scheduled according to Solís.
“In 2020, we scheduled 59,016 appointments. And so far this year, we’ve had 65,699 appointments with the public,” he said.
The Consulate tends to work up to six Saturdays a year when needed, Solís added, but because of the high demand and decrease in in-person operations, staff have worked 40 weekends this year.
“The above will give you an idea of the demand, of the workloads, but above all of the efforts of everyone at the Consulate to serve our community,” Solís said.
García said that, as a farm worker, she and others in the community understand the long work days. But she hopes they will find a way to be more courteous to people seeking help from the Consulate.
“All we ask is a little decency and to be treated with respect when we ask for help as their fellow Mexicans,” García said. “We’ll still be there on Friday to give people a chance to meet with the staff and officials to build a better relationship.”
Mexicans in North Carolina
Mexicans make up more than half the foreign-born Hispanic residents of North Carolina.
The state’s Hispanic population passed 1 million residents in 2019, or 1,026,000 residents, according to the Carolina Population Center at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Roughly 6 in 10 Hispanic people living in North Carolina were U.S.-born, the center reported.
Among the foreign-born Hispanic population, 229,000 individuals, or 57%, were from Mexico, the center reported.
This story was originally published October 7, 2021 at 12:19 PM.
