Did you know that Mexico’s biggest political party is organizing, recruiting, and mobilizing supporters in the United States?
New research from TPPF’s Alejandrina Elms and America First Policy Institute’s Melissa Ford Maldonado documents how the MORENA party is building a permanent political operation on American soil. They’re doing this in collaboration with the Mexican government’s network of 53 consulates spread out across our country. That’s the largest network of consulates of any country in a single host nation, by the way.
When foreign political movements see our communities as fertile ground for expanding their own power, we have a problem.
MORENA, which describes itself as “a movement beyond borders,” isn’t simply trying to maintain cultural ties with Mexicans living abroad. Its 2024–2027 overseas strategy explicitly calls for establishing party committees throughout the United States, political education, recruitment, and sustained engagement with Mexican consulates.
Consider Alejandro Robles Gómez, MORENA’s secretary for Mexicans abroad. According to the report, he has met with Mexican consular officials in at least six U.S. cities, including Houston and Austin. In April, he recorded a political video at the Mexican consulate in Sacramento criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Mexican-American citizens have every right to participate in American civic life, express their political views, and maintain ties to their heritage. Mexico also has a legitimate interest in providing consular services to its citizens living or traveling abroad. The question is whether public diplomatic facilities, personnel, or resources should be used for partisan political organizing.
This activity also highlights Mexico’s hypocrisy when it comes to foreign involvement. Mexico has long invoked national sovereignty to impose restrictions and oversight on foreign government agents operating within its borders. Yet MORENA is pursuing a formal political presence in the United States while cultivating relationships with the very consular institutions that represent the Mexican state. That double standard is worth noting.
Elms and Maldonado suggest enforcing the Foreign Agents Registration Act as one way to push back. FARA was enacted in 1938 to ensure transparency when persons operating in the United States undertake political or representational activities on behalf of foreign principals. The Department of Justice should more aggressively investigate MORENA-linked political activities and require registration and disclosure.
The paper then calls for imposing consequences when consular facilities or resources are used for partisan purposes, including a reduction of Mexico’s consular footprint where necessary.
America welcomes peaceful cultural exchange and lawful political participation. What we should not do is turn a blind eye when a foreign ruling party builds an organized political apparatus inside our borders. Transparency is not hostility toward Mexico or Mexican Americans. It is a basic safeguard of American self-government.
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