MEXICO CITY _ Requests for legal advice at Mexico's consulates in the United States have increased 400 percent amid fears of mass deportations, Mexican officials said Tuesday.
"There is a huge concern on the part of the Mexican community abroad," Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said at a news conference in Mexico City. Requests for legal services, he said, have risen fourfold since the inauguration of President Donald Trump on Jan. 20.
The Mexican government is expanding access to lawyers and legal consultants at its 50 consulates across the United States, Videgaray said, and consular officials are helping those in deportation proceedings to protect vehicles, real estate and other property they may own in the United States.
Videgaray said government lawyers in Mexico City are paying particular attention to cases that may have "strategic value," some of which could become the subject of official complaints with the United Nations or the Organization of American States.
Videgaray, who met earlier this month with Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly, also said the Mexican government is worried about a U.S. plan to possibly separate children from parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Kelly said this week that he is considering family separation as a part of a broader effort to discourage immigrants from making the dangerous trek to the U.S. border.
Videgaray said the Mexican government reached out to the U.S. government to express its concerns about the plan, which he said could inflict "irreversible damage" on Mexican families.
