Mexico’s Ruling Party Is Building a Political Operation Inside the United States

AUSTIN, Texas — Today the Texas Public Policy Foundation released MORENA in the United States and Abroad, co-published with the America First Policy Institute. In it, authors Alejandrina Elms and Melissa Ford show that MORENA, Mexico’s governing party, is building a permanent partisan organization in the United States while actively using Mexico’s 53 U.S. consulates for party work.

MORENA’s own 2024–2027 overseas plan calls for party committees across the country and “permanent contact” with Mexican consulates. Alejandro Robles Gómez, the party’s Secretary for Mexicans Abroad, has met with consular officials in at least six cities, including Houston and Austin. He also recorded a political video at the Sacramento consulate criticizing U.S. immigration policy.

That activity stands in stark contrast to how Mexico treats U.S. government activity on its own soil. In 2020, Mexico amended its National Security Law to impose extensive reporting and oversight requirements on foreign agents, including the DEA. It has since adopted an electoral measure targeting foreign “intervention or interference” in its elections, all in the name of national sovereignty.

“Every country has the right to serve its citizens abroad, but no foreign ruling party has the right to turn its diplomatic posts into field offices,” said Alejandrina Elms, policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “Americans deserve to know who is organizing in their communities and on whose behalf.”

“Mexico’s ruling party can’t have it both ways. While the Mexican government invokes sovereignty to restrict U.S. activities on their soil, MORENA officials are using Mexican consular facilities and relationships to advance their political agenda here in the United States. That is a blatant double standard,” said Melissa Ford Maldonado, director of the Western Hemisphere initiative at America First Policy Institute. “If Mexico demands respect for its sovereignty, then it must also respect ours. That means transparency, real consequences, and full reciprocity.”

The paper recommends that the United States enforce the Foreign Agents Registration Act wherever MORENA-linked activity meets the statute’s requirements. It also calls for diplomatic consequences when consulates are used for partisan purposes, and for U.S.-Mexico relations to be based on full reciprocity.

The full paper is available here.