Mexican consulate stays out of the fray

The Mexican flag hangs from a nondescript brick building nestled among offices, condos and restaurants in a leafy block in Belltown.

Every now and then, someone walking past does a double-take, as if surprised to see a foreign flag hanging here.

On most days, Mexican immigrants — strollers in tow, toddlers in arms — crowd the building's small lobby, spilling out beyond a wrought-iron gate and onto the street.

Behind a glass partition inside, a handful of people work frantically, issuing passports and identification cards and registering the births of children born in the U.S. to Mexican nationals.

At a time when immigration is among the issues dominating American politics — with Mexican immigrants playing a key role — the Seattle Consulate of Mexico keeps a low profile, all but invisible to most non-Mexicans here. It is one of five full foreign consulates in the Seattle area — and by far the busiest, with between 150 and 200 cases a day.

Among other things, the consulate issues visas to non-Mexicans and generally serves the interests of Mexican nationals in Washington and Alaska, regardless of immigration status.

It must refrain from interfering in the domestic policies of the United States.

So people who called its offices to inquire about immigration rallies and protests on Seattle streets last year and earlier this year, for example, were told the office was not involved in the events.

Nor can the consulate save its constituents from deportation — something desperate immigrants facing removal quickly learn.

"If someone runs a red light up the street, they can't come running to us," said Salvador Tinajero, the consulate's director of community outreach. "We can't protect people who have broken the law."

While some immigration advocates criticize the consulate for not doing more to help those facing deportation, critics on the other side of the immigration debate say the consulate goes too far in the other direction whenever it issues the "matrícula consular" ID card, which people from Mexico use as identification to open bank accounts and rent apartments and to help obtain driver's licenses.

"If you are a legal resident of the United States, you have a Social Security number and you have the papers you need to be living here," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for immigration enforcement.

"You don't need the services of the Mexican consulate to set you up. Clearly the intent is to facilitate people living illegally in the United States."

All kinds of help

The Mexican Consulate opened in Seattle more than 30 years ago, at a time when most of those it served were concentrated east of the Cascade Mountains. It is one of 47 Mexican consulates nationwide, the largest network for any country.

The Census Bureau estimates that 80 percent of the more than 540,000 Latinos in the state of Washington are of Mexican origin. They turn to their consulate for all kinds of help — from returning home the remains of dead family members to going on Spanish-language radio earlier this year to warn people about a scam involving promises of amnesty.

When a young Mexican was beaten up by a group of men in Tacoma recently, the consulate, acting on the request of his family in Mexico, picked him up and arranged his flight back to Mexico.

Hilary Stern, executive director of Casa Latina, an immigrant-services organization that moved to a nearby space 10 years ago, has watched the office expand.

"There are so many people who come for service; we see them every day," she said. "I think they play an important role, and I'm really glad they're here."

The consulate also provides a wide range of assistance in areas of education and health and helps smooth the path for people looking to relocate to Mexico.

Each day, representatives from local banks — U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Plaza Bank, the first Hispanic-owned bank in the Northwest — visit the office to promote their services. Seattle and King County health officials come weekly to outline their services.

Once a month, the consulate takes its services on the road to Eastern Washington and Mount Vernon — and twice a year to Alaska — making it more convenient for people living there to get documents.

In June, when immigration officials picked up a mother of four in a raid at her Burien home and later deported her to Mexico, the consulate made arrangements for her two U.S.-born daughters to join her there.

While the mother had the option of taking her children back with her on the government-paid flight, Gilberto Alonso Gómez, who heads the consulate's protection-services division, said she chose instead to have them fly commercially so they wouldn't have to live with the image of her deportation.

"We try to keep ourselves as close to the community as possible, but we don't get involved in immigration policies," Tinajero said. "Regardless of the status of Mexicans here, we want to ensure that their human rights are respected.

"Obviously it matters, the status of Mexicans here. But that's an issue for [Congress], not for us."

Too much, or too little?

But Jorge Quiroga, an organizer with Comité Pro-Amnistia General y Justicia Social, (Committee for General Amnesty and Social Justice) which organized many of the immigration rallies, believes the consulate should be doing more to help those about to be deported find a way to remain in this country.

"They are very quick to tell people to sign up and go with voluntary deportation," Quiroga said.

Mehlman, the advocate for tougher immigration enforcement, thinks Mexican consulates go too far in helping constituents. He pointed out that consulates in California and Arizona became deeply involved in immigration in years when measures intended to crack down on illegal immigrants went before voters in those states.

"The Mexican government seems to see the role of consulates as advocates for Mexicans living in the U.S. — legally or illegally."

Gómez conducts regular visits to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, where he meets with Mexican nationals detained there, reviews their cases and discusses their options with them.

The consulate can't represent anyone, though it keeps a list of immigration attorneys and programs it can refer them to.

He said people are either eager to talk with him because they hope he can help them or flatly refuse because they know he can't. "We can't force anyone to talk to us."

"Usually, once people realize there's no chance for them to stay here, they want to get out as quickly as possible."

Seattle Times news researcher Gene Balk contributed to this report.

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com