Mexico will be closing its Anchorage consulate office at the end of November, a casualty of that country's own budgetary constraints and diminishing demand in Alaska, officials said Thursday.
The closure means Alaska residents and tourists with Mexican nationality will no longer be able to drop by the office in downtown Anchorage for services that include obtaining identification cards, birth certificates and visas. But Eduardo Baca, Mexico's Seattle consul, said at a Thursday press conference that the consulate will attempt to maintain a physical presence in Alaska.
"It's not an easy decision," Baca said. "Our objective is to make this transition as soft as possible."
Starting next spring, five staffers from the Seattle consulate will be sent to Anchorage for a week at a time, Baca said. The "Consulate on Wheels" staff will bring the equipment to issue high-security passports and other documentation that would otherwise require a trip to Seattle.
Each visit from the Consulate on Wheels can serve up to 600 people at a time, Baca said, and the number of visits a year will depend on demand. Baca said he's also been talking to local government agencies and nonprofit organizations about ways to continue programs and services. The Seattle consulate also plans to use videoconferencing to reduce trips for Alaska residents.
Anchorage's Latino community has reacted with alarm to the planned closure, and a petition to stop it has garnered about 900 signatures over the last several weeks. But Baca said low demand was the main reason for the decision, adding that the consulate issued just 40 passports last month.
Baca estimated that the Anchorage office, with 10 employees, costs roughly $500,000 annually to operate. He said the resources will be redistributed to other U.S. states with larger Mexican-American populations than Alaska but less access to consular services.
At lunchtime on Thursday, the lobby in the Anchorage consulate near the corner of Sixth Avenue and C Street was deserted.
"As you can see, very few people are showing up," said Marisela Quijano, who has been Mexico's acting Anchorage consul for the past year.
Alaska's expanding Mexican-American population prompted the government of Mexico to open the consulate in February 2009. Census data show residents of Mexican descent were among the fastest-growing minority groups in the state, with an estimated population of about 24,000.
Mexico's consular departure leaves Japan and Korea as the only two countries represented by official consuls in Alaska, according to the U.S. State Department. Nearly 20 countries are represented by honorary consuls, but none represent Latin American countries, which local Latino activists say is deeply concerning.
When word began to circulate weeks ago of the Mexican consulate's impending closure, about 30 leaders in the Mexican community gathered to discuss what to do, said Daniel Esparza Sr., a longtime community activist. The group decided to start a petition asking the Mexican government keep open the consulate.
As of Wednesday, close to 900 people had signed, Esparza said. About half of the signatures came with a personal story, explaining the reason for the signature.
One woman wrote in the petition that when her relative died six months ago, the Mexican consulate helped her with the paperwork to send the body back to Mexico, Esparza said. Another petition signer said the consulate helped their mother find help for a medical condition.
With its vast geography and distance from the Lower 48, Alaska is different from other states served by the consul, Esparza said.
"We feel like we're alone, especially in these times," Esparza said. "Far away from the rest of the states that have large Mexican populations."
Esparza said that the formality of the official consulate may have deterred people from using its services.
Earlier this week, Baca met with Esparza and other members of the group to discuss the planned closure. Some people at the meeting were involved with the effort to bring the consulate to Anchorage about 15 years ago, Esparza said.
One of them was Lisa Mariscal, who worked for years as a volunteer honorary consul to Mexico. Mariscal didn't have an office and did all of her work from her cellphone. It was a lot of work, she said, involving paperwork and coordination between different agencies.
"The consulate was giving us presence, voice, a central area where everyone could go," Mariscal said. "Even though they couldn't be everything to everybody, they were able to direct people to different areas."
Mariscal said the group of Latino community leaders is doing everything it can, but she said the decision to close the consulate appears to be final. She said the community is preparing for a fresh start.
"With time, we're hoping that we'll take another baby step, and maybe demonstrate that yes, there is enough need," Mariscal said. "We'll build again."
Baca said consulate staff will remain in Anchorage until the end of December to help with the transition.