WITHOUT A VISA

For Mexican politicians, business leaders, and entertainment figures, having the U.S. government revoke their entry visas constitutes a genuine tragedy.

While for ordinary Mexicans the United States has represented an opportunity to improve their lives by traveling there—legally or illegally—for work (the federal government’s Institute for Mexicans Abroad estimates that 11,915,000 Mexicans live abroad, with 98% residing in the U.S.), for the country’s upper-middle and upper classes, the northern neighbor represents a place to invest substantial financial resources, send children to study, own property, vacation frequently, attend sporting events, concerts, and cultural gatherings, or seek care at private hospitals.

Conservative estimates suggest Mexicans hold around $100 billion in the U.S. banking and financial system; Mexican-owned property in the U.S. totals $607 billion—surpassed only by holdings of Canadian and Chinese citizens—and the average cost of homes purchased by Mexicans exceeds $700,000 each.

Last year alone, nearly 17 million Mexican tourists traveled to the United States, and during the most recent academic year for which figures are available (2024–2025), a total of 13,600 students of Mexican origin enrolled in american universities.

The U.S. government does not publish visa issuance figures by nationality—though the total number of visas issued stands at around 55 million—but it is known that the U.S. embassy and consulates in Mexico issue between 1.5 and 2 million visas annually.

Consequently, President Trump’s policy of revoking 175,000 visas since the start of his second term has caused serious frustration for the many Mexicans affected by the measure.

This particularly affects Mexican politicians suspected of having their visas revoked due to ongoing U.S. investigations into possible ties to organized crime or involvement in criminal activities.

This week, Andrés Manuel López Beltrán—son of former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)—confirmed via social media that he had been officially notified of the revocation of his visa.

López Beltrán responded by sending a “letter” to President Trump accusing Marco Rubio and Christopher Landau (an Under Secretary of State) of orchestrating the move. He characterized the measure as “political—or rather, petty politics and propaganda, Hitler-style”—and described it as a form of pressure against those who “do not align with or submit to their authoritarian, factional agendas and corrupt practices.”

“It is clear, Mr. President, that I have no problem not visiting the United States during these decadent and lamentable times of hatred, racism, drug abuse, family breakdown, social unrest, and sadness,” López Beltrán wrote in the message addressed to Trump.

In contrast, his older brother, José Ramón López Beltrán, immediately posted photos of himself in Texas on social media, while his wife, Carolyn Adams (a U.S. citizen), posted photos of herself, her husband, and their children at Disneyland—implying that, at the very least, that branch of the López Beltrán family faces no issues regarding legal residence in the United States (specifically Houston).

Everyone from President Sheinbaum to state governors, federal lawmakers, and leaders of the Morena party expressed support for the former president’s son, denouncing “attacks on national sovereignty” and “U.S. government interventionism” in domestic politics. President Claudia Sheinbaum stated that “this cancellation of visas for those they term ‘politically exposed persons’ is essentially political in nature, because it is not applied consistently across all countries. We can look at what is happening in other Latin American countries versus what is happening in our own. And this constitutes a form of interference in Mexican politics,” the president noted.

Thus, Mexico’s dominant party equates the defense of national sovereignty, the country’s independence, and government autonomy with whether the United States grants or revokes visas for its politicians, officials, or their children and relatives.

In doing so, the federal government and the dominant party reduce the value of sovereignty to a caricature, placing it on the same level as individuals such as López Beltrán or the Governor of Sinaloa (currently on leave), Rubén Rocha Moya—who is sought by the United States to stand trial for protecting the Sinaloa Cartel.

So far, the politicians without visas are mostly members of Morena—the party currently in power in Mexico—though there are also cases involving opposition figures.

• Marina del Pilar Avila, Governor of Baja California.

• Carlos Torres, ex-husband of the Governor of Baja California.

• José Luis Dagnino, former mayor of San Felipe, Baja California.

• Óscar Eduardo Castro, mayor of Puerto Peñasco, Sonora.

• Juan Francisco Gim, mayor of Nogales, Sonora.

• Alfonso Durazo, Governor of Sonora, and Américo Villarreal, Governor of Tamaulipas, are presumed to be in the same situation, though they have denied it.

• Héctor Astudillo Flores, former governor of Guerrero.

• Mario Alberto López, federal deputy for the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM) and former mayor of Matamoros, Tamaulipas.

Numerous reports and media investigations in Mexico have pointed out that López Obrador’s children—especially “Andy,” as Andrés Manuel is known—have amassed scandalous wealth. This stands in stark contrast to what their father preached throughout his political career (claiming he had only 200 pesos in his pocket, a single pair of shoes, and no credit cards), as documented evidence reveals extremely expensive trips to Europe, Asia, and the United States, as well as frequent visits to high-end stores both in Mexico and abroad. Before López Obrador assumed the presidency, his three children from his first marriage lived in a very modest apartment in southern Mexico City, and they were never seen shopping at high-end stores or traveling abroad in luxury.

Everything changed when their father became president of Mexico. Overnight, they transformed into multimillionaires with expensive tastes, designer clothing, and bulging bank accounts.

Naturally, the AMLO-Sheinbaum administration will protect the wealth amassed by the former president’s offspring, as well as the shady business dealings and rampant corruption of public officials and members of the new “golden caste” that now dominates the country politically.