46 JULY-AUGUST 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL FEATURE Creative public diplomacy plays a vital, leading role in combating illegal immigration at U.S. Embassy Mexico City. BY ANDREA STANFORD Foreign Service Officer Andrea Stanford is currently serving at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City. Over the past 14 years, she has served in the press office of the Western Hemisphere Affairs Bureau (WHA), at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York, in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), in the Foreign Press Center, and at Mission China. She earned the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy’s 2025 Ameri Prize for Innovation in Public Diplomacy, which recognizes U.S. officers whose creativity and leadership advance the practice of public diplomacy worldwide. The views expressed are her own, not necessarily those of the U.S. government or the State Department. Making Truth Travel Faster Than Lies Public Diplomacy at the Front Lines of Migration When I began my assignment at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City, migrant numbers were staggering. At the height of the crisis, more than 10,000 people reached the U.S.-Mexico border each day, many misled by false information. They were motivated but deceived by smugglers who had mastered social media better than we had. The smugglers’ message was simple and dangerous: “Cross today. The border is open.” Countering illegal immigration drives Mission Mexico’s work, and as the lead for the messaging—and an experienced public diplomacy officer—I made sure public diplomacy joined the policy conversation from day one. When we shape policy—not just communicate it—we translate complexity into clarity, turn skepticism into understanding, and transform information into action. Those are the moments when public diplomacy does its best work. We don’t just explain policy—where strategy meets storytelling, we make that strategy understandable, credible, and actionable for the people it serves. A Policy Challenge with Human Consequences Illegal immigration is one of our hemisphere’s most pressing challenges. Our public diplomacy team found that immigrants often lacked clear, reliable information about U.S. policies and fell prey to false promises from smugglers. The U.S. government had few direct ways to share timely updates, allowing criminal networks to spread false information. The result was confusion and tragedy: Families sold their homes based on lies and risked
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