The Foreign Service Journal, October 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2016 51 can state-level migrant assistance agencies that provide applica- tion information directly tomigrant communities, assist with filling out paperwork and sometimes organize transportation—all formi- dable obstacles for migrant family members, who often come from lower socioeconomic strata. At the fairs consular officers answer nervous parents’ questions about documentation requirements and accept passport applications for the U.S.-born children. Many families tell consular officers they did not understand they could apply for U.S. passports inMexico; many add that they would never have been able to fill out the forms on their own. These outreach efforts require hundreds of hours of planning and labor, stretching already tight consular budgets. However, to date, thousands of children have qualified for their U.S. passports through these special events. It is a good start. But when consider- ing the estimated population of 600,000 undocumented U.S.- citizen kids in Mexico, it is just a drop in the bucket. North of the Border As Mission Mexico grapples with how to find migrant families with U.S.-born kids in Mexico, the State Department has been tackling the problem north of the border. According to Geoff Martineau, the division chief for Western hemisphere affairs in the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ Office of Overseas Citizens Services, the solution lies in the vast communi- ties of migrants already in the United States, many of whom live in the shadow of the law. “What we need to do is turn off the tap of U.S. children going south into Mexico without documents,” says Martineau. FromWashington, CA’s Office of Passport Services (CA/PPT) works with Martineau’s office to amplify the Documéntate initia- tive in the United States—from domestic campaigns in Spanish media to partnering with labor groups and religious organizations in U.S. cities. The State Department recently published a Spanish- language page about applying for passports on its website, travel. state.gov. But for Martineau, the most promising development is col- laboration with Mexican consular officers. “There are 50 Mexican consulates in the United States, and they do vigorous outreach to their citizens on migrant workers’ rights. They know where their people are. And we can join with them, because we have the same target population,” he points out. When U.S. passport agencies team up with Mexican consular outreach, the results are significant. Efforts are underway, where possible, to put U.S. passport information in Mexican consular waiting rooms, which has a huge impact. For example, Mexico’s Los Angeles consular district alone comprises 1.7 million Mexi- cans, and that generates significant foot traffic through the local Mexican consulate. Much of the U.S. groundwork for the State Department is being carried out by CA/PPT, through Community Relations Officer Andres Rodriguez, and in close coordination with the staffs at the passport agencies and centers. Rodriguez was recently invited to observe a Mexican “consulate on wheels” event that visited a church in Charlottesville, Virginia. He came away deeply impressed. “They had a small team of people with laptops and printers, and they were doing all the things a consulate does—registering people for Mexican birth certificates, fingerprinting, taking photos and printing passports—all from this community church,” reports Rodriguez. The mobile Mexican team issued consular reports of birth abroad to nearly 100 people that day. There are dozens of teams conducting similar consular outreach year-round to reach the millions of Mexicans living in the United States. Rodriguez is currently working on a strategy for CA/PPT to use its network of U.S. passport agencies to conduct information outreach through community groups who work with migrants, like Catholic Charities, the United Farmworkers Foundation and other migrant community groups. The challenge, he says, is not just putting the message out there; it is finding the right messen- ger. “These are not people we can just hand a pamphlet or send to a website. That’s not going to work,” he says. “It has to be one-on- one communication. It comes down to trust. I think the best way to disseminate the message is through trusted third parties.” Rodriguez is on the frontline of a highly contentious issue. At an event he attended in Fresno, California, Rodriguez met with 20 farmworkers fromOaxaca, many of whom spoke Spanish as a second language after their native tongue, Mixteca. “I asked them, howmany of you have children born in the United States? About 17 people raised their hands. And howmany of your kids have a The goal of Documéntate is simple: collaborate with Mexican authorities to reach migrant families and help them fully document their children as dual nationals.